Kaiba's New Assistant
by Usearki
Summary: Jonouchi and Kaiba finally figure out that they like each other, but the school principal thinks they are fighting. After being told to spend the day together, how will things change for them? Jou/Kaiba
1. Chapter 1

**Disclaimer:** I do not own YuGiOh!. That pleasure belongs to Kazuki Takahashi. I also do not own Father Ted. That belongs to Hat Trick and Channel 4. This is solely written for fun and not for profit.

**A/N** - Welp, I'm finally getting around to posting my next story. I actually started this one as practice for NaNo 09, but only finished the first draft last summer. I've been sitting on it since then because I needed to get a little distance from it before I started on the editing process and, of course, I always have that lack of confidence thing going on.

**Just in case** you didn't realise from the fact that I labelled the story **Jou/Kaiba** in the summary, this story contains **uke Seto.** I think I wrote it that way because someone stated that Kaiba could never be bottom, so I decided that he could. It has to be said that since then I have come around to the thinking that they'd actually switch it up a bit, but for the purposes of this particular story Jou is top and Kaiba is bottom.

**Extra Note**: As you may have seen in the disclaimer, this story has a bit of a crossover with Father Ted. Yes, you did read that right - I have Mrs. Doyle as Kaiba's housekeeper. It wasn't something I intended, she just ended up there complete with backstory as to how she got there too, so I ran with it. LOL.

**Finally**, I just want to make it clear that this story is rated **M**. This means, according to the ratings system used on this site, that there will be content that is intended for those over **16** years of age.

xo xo xo xo xo xo xo

Jonouchi Katsuya cursed as he ran into the school building. He was late, not by a huge amount but it would be enough to get him detention - again - and that was something he really could not afford right now. He reached his locker in record time, then as he was struggling to get his books together, he felt a presence behind him. With a feeling of dread he whirled around and looked up into the cold blue eyes of Kaiba Seto. Jou tensed for whatever Kaiba was going to throw at him this morning as from the look on his face he was spoiling for a fight. However, this time Jou was determined that he wasn't going to let Kaiba get the better of him.

"I should have known that a dog couldn't be on time," Kaiba sneered.

"Dammit I am not a dog, Kaiba," Jou snarled, then added quickly, "Besides, aren't you late too? That makes you no better than me."

"Don't even go there, Mutt," Kaiba growled, expression darkening dangerously.

Jou heard the warning in Kaiba's tone, but carried on regardless. "So if you're no better than me and I'm a dog, what does that make you, Kaiba? A bitch?" Jou chuckled, "Heh, thinking on it you sure do like to bitch a lot, don't you?"

As the last word left his mouth, Jou found himself smashed back against the locker. He looked up defiantly at the cold gaze piercing him. "What did you call me, Mutt?" Kaiba snarled into his face. That had been a touch closer to the truth than Kaiba would like to admit and predictably, he'd reacted badly.

Jou really wasn't in the mood to stand for Kaiba's attitude as his morning had been bad enough already, what with his father being an ass, his alarm clock not working thus making him late and now Kaiba was doing his best to push his buttons. For once he did not hold back and used all his strength to reverse their positions, smashing Kaiba's back against the lockers and staring upwards into those deep blue eyes. "I called you a bitch," he growled at the shocked looking Kaiba. "What's the matter? Worried it might actually be true?"

"In your dreams, Mutt," Kaiba managed to choke out, but he didn't sound very convincing. To Jou's surprise, he realised that Kaiba was being strangely quiescent and wasn't trying to push him off so he looked at the tall CEO with some curiosity. Damn, the guy may be handsome and Jou may even admit that he had somewhat of a crush on the icy brunet, but Kaiba's obvious hatred of him had stopped Jou from even entertaining the thought that he could ever be interested. However, Kaiba's current attitude had him wondering if he could have possibly been wrong. Even as these thoughts flashed through his mind, something in Kaiba's eyes called out to him, taking his breath away. Then, before he even had time to think about what he was doing, he'd reached up and pulled the strangely unresisting Kaiba down into a kiss.

The kiss was short, but intense and Jou thought that even if Kaiba were to kill him right now it would be worth it. He felt Kaiba shift against him and he realised that Kaiba was hard – and so was he. This realisation shocked Jou back to his senses and he pulled away, hoping that Kaiba wouldn't kill him too much.

"Oh God, puppy..." Kaiba breathed as Jou stepped bac, but he was to be shocked out of his daze as Jou saw red and slammed him back into the lockers again.

"What the hell is it with you and calling me a dog, Kaiba?" Jou snarled as he glared up into Kaiba's face.

Kaiba looked at Jou in shock for a moment. Didn't he get it by now? "Dammit Jonouchi, I didn't mean..." he began to speak, but before he could even begin to explain he was rudely interrupted.

"Kaiba, Jonouchi!" a voice came from behind them, "Get to my office. Now!"

Jou slowly released Kaiba and looked behind him. Sure enough, it was the principal. As the man turned away sharply and headed for said office, obviously expecting the two boys to follow him without question, Jou began to feel faint and he started shaking. If the principal had seen what had just occurred between him and Kaiba then this could be very, very bad.

Kaiba looked at Jou with some concern. He didn't think he'd ever seen anyone go that pale before and he wondered momentarily if Jou was going to faint. He put his hand on the other's shoulder. "Jonouchi..."

Jou jumped and regained a little colour, although not much. "Better go and get this over with," he said under his breath. He set his mouth into a grim line and started towards the Principal's office as if he were heading towards his execution, leaving a doubly confused Kaiba to follow in his wake.

When they entered the Principal's office, the man was already sat in the chair behind his desk. He waited until the door was closed and they were both standing uncomfortably in front of him before he began. "So, let me get this straight. Not only were you two late this morning, but you also started fighting. Again." He paused. "Do you have an explanation for this?" He held up a hand before either of them could reply. "On second thoughts, don't bother. I would almost expect this of you Jonouchi, even though you have made more of an effort just lately, but you Kaiba, I really did expect more of. Let me think for a moment..."

The principal was quiet for several moments, obviously thinking about something and leaving Jou and Kaiba uncomfortably wondering what kind of punishment he would inflict on them. Kaiba looked at Jou noting that as the principal had mentioned fighting his colour had returned somewhat and he'd visibly relaxed. Interesting. He would have to ask Jou about that later on. His attention was brought back to the principal as the man began to speak again.

"Right," the principal said, "this is what we are going to do. Now in normal circumstances I would either give you detention or suspend the pair of you for at least the rest of the day, but seeing as you are in your final year and I have a little more latitude as to how to deal with this I'm going to take a different approach." He eyed the pair of teens carefully as he spoke. "I am going to send you out of school for the day, but it is not a suspension. No, this is going to be classed as a special project just for the two of you. You will spend the rest of the day together and you will do your best to learn to get along." He opened a drawer in his desk and brought out a pair of passes. "You can spend the day however you like, as long as you spend it together. I don't expect a written report, but I do expect to see you getting along better from now on. Any questions?"

"Yeah, I got one," Jonouchi said, "Are you going to send a letter home to my dad about this?"

"Considering that it's not a suspension this time, then no, as long as you see today through and I see some results. And Mr. Kaiba, I'm sure you don't want a letter going to your case worker do you?"

"No, Sir," Kaiba said. He knew that a black mark on his record could be bad for him when it came to keeping custody of Mokuba. Not that it should have been an issue considering that the high court had granted him custody, but the social services in Domino were quite prone to sticking their noses in despite this.

"Well, then, I think that will be all." The principal gave the passes to Kaiba, then motioned for them to leave. "Return those passes to me first thing tomorrow morning and don't kill each other." He added in a light-hearted voice as they left.

The two boys were silent as they exited the principal's office together. Neither one seemed to want to break the silence, but eventually Kaiba sighed, picked up his phone and called his limo back to school. Once he received confirmation that the driver was on his way back, Kaiba turned to Jou "Come on then," he said.

"Where we goin'?" Jou asked guardedly. He wouldn't put it past Kaiba to go straight to Kaiba Corp and leave him to get bored as he worked all day.

"I thought that we could go back to my home for the rest of the day," Kaiba explained as they walked down the corridor towards the exit. He held his hand up as Jou was about to say something else. "We can talk in the car."

Jou nodded and followed Kaiba as they exited the school. Once they were in the limo and on the way back to the mansion, Seto decided to ask Jou a couple of questions. "So, what was that all about back there."

Jou looked up at Kaiba defiantly, with a glint in his eye that made a frisson go down his spine. "I decided I wanted to kiss ya and I thought that even if you killed me it would be worth it."

"Well, I didn't kill you," he said softly, "and I'm not going to, puppy."

Jou let out a growl, "And there you go with the dog insults again. Where do you..."

"Jonouchi!" Seto interrupted before he could get too riled up.

"So you DO know my name," Jou said.

"Of course I do," Seto snorted, "Don't you realise that Puppy is more of a pet name? You are loyal, affectionate and you have a bite when you need to."

Jou was slightly taken aback by this, but supposed that it was just another shock to add on top of all the others that morning. "You mean that, Kaiba?" he asked, still slightly unsure of the other's motives.

"Every word, puppy," Seto said with a small, but genuine smile. Jou bristled a little, but then settled when he realised that Kaiba was just teasing him.

Seto suppressed the smile. He didn't want to upset Jou, not as things seemed to be going well between them but he had one more question he needed an answer to. "And what was all that about after the principal caught us 'fighting'? You went so pale that I thought you were going to pass out."

Jou did look a little uncomfortable at this. "Well, let's just say that no matter what you might possibly lose if you were caught kissing another boy, I'd probably lose more. A lot more."

Seto blinked at Jounouchi in shock. How could he possibly have more to lose than he himself did? "In your dreams, Mutt," he snarled as he iced up, making Jou visibly bristle in response, "Worst case scenario? I could lose custody of Mokuba and as things stand, even my position as CEO of Kaiba Corporation. So don't you dare to try and tell me that you could possibly have more to lose than I could."

Jou sighed and subsided. Yep, he did have quite a lot to lose, but Kaiba didn't seem to understand what it was that he was getting at and he wasn't about to come right out and say it. He was sure that Kaiba would work it out eventually though. He sighed again before he spoke. "It really wouldn't work out, would it?"

Seto deflated at the defeat in Jou's voice. "No, I suppose not, but for the record that really would be a worst case scenario. The reality probably wouldn't be anything like that bad, but still..."

"Yeah, I get you," Jou said, "but hey, can we at least call a truce? I really don't want to go back to fighting all the time and I'm really tired of getting into trouble for it too."

Seto was silent for a moment as he thought about it. "I suppose that I can agree to that, but won't your friends ask questions if we aren't at each other's throats all the time?"

"It's ok, I can handle that," Jou said with a grin. "I'll tell them that the principal caught us fighting and we had to spend the day together where we worked through some of our differences. It's only the truth after all." He suddenly paused as he finished that sentence then looked at Kaiba like he expected the rug to be pulled out from under him. "So when do you say 'ha, gotcha, only joking' and start calling me a mutt again?" He had a haunted look about him as he said this, as if he'd had his hopes dashed on more than one occasion.

In that moment, Seto realised his past actions may have damaged any trust that Jou might want to have for him, so he caught Jou's eyes with an intense look of his own. "I promise you that I won't do that, Jonouchi." He said in a low tone and there was such sincerity in his voice that Jou couldn't help but believe him even against any instinct telling him otherwise.

"OK, Kaiba. Sorry for doubting you," Jou said, giving a wan smile.

Kaiba realised that Jou still had a way to go before he could trust him fully and who could blame him. "It's OK pup. I wouldn't trust me either." Both boys grinned at that and another piece of the ice was broken.

Before anything else could be said, they pulled up at Kaiba's mansion and the driver came around and opened the door. Seto and Jou both got out and Jou couldn't help but whistle in appreciation at the view of the grand house. "Nice pad you have here Kaiba," Jou said as they started towards the entrance.

"You haven't seen anything yet," Kaiba said, "just wait until you see the inside."

"I seriously doubt that it could impress me any more than this," Jou said, then he changed the subject. "So what _are_ we going to do for the rest of the day?"

Seto held the door open for Jou. "Well, I do have to head into Kaiba Corporation later on," he replied, "but for the moment I thought we could just hang out and maybe watch some TV?"

"You're kidding, right?" Jou said in amazement as they walked through the hallway. "Does the mighty Kaiba Seto really do such mundane things as hang out and watch TV?"

Seto looked a little downcast and sighed. "You don't have to remind me..."

"Sorry Kaiba," Jou said a little contritely. He guessed it wasn't all Kaiba's fault that he didn't have any friends to hang out with other than his brother. It must be quite hard to tell the genuine article from the suck ups and those that wanted to take him for as much as they could. "It's kinda hard to get out of the habit of needling you, ya know?"

"That's OK, pup, I understand." Seto said. "When practically all we've known of each other is fighting, it's hard to stop just like that." They entered the kitchen together. "Would you like something to eat?" he asked.

Jou's stomach growled and he looked a little embarrassed. "Nothing fancy," he said, "Just a sandwich will be fine."

Knowing what Jou's appetite was like, Seto instructed what Jou assumed was his cook, in English Jou noted, to make a plate of Chicken sandwiches then led him into the lounge. Jou's eyes went large and round as he took in the plush furniture, large flat-screen TV, DVD player and games consoles against the wall. For once in his life he was totally speechless.

Kaiba looked on in amusement. "I told you you'd like it better inside." He said with a low chuckle.

Jou had to do a spit take. Did Kaiba realise what he'd just said? Did he even know what a double entendre was? Looking at his face it was hard to tell. But then it was always difficult to tell what Kaiba was thinking. He cleared his throat and gestured towards the games consoles. "Is it alright if we play around for a while? I promise not to be too hard on you." If Kaiba noticed the potential double meanings he showed no outward sign of it. Jou mentally shook his head. The other boy was totally clueless. Ah well, he was sure that he could educate him later.

"What do you mean you won't go hard on me?" Kaiba almost bellowed in response to the challenge, "I'll show you who needs things to be taken easy on them!"

With that the two boys lost track of time playing various video games while Jou started making his way through the mountain of sandwiches that Mrs Doyle, as she had been introduced to Jou, had made for them.

"Hey Kaiba?" Jou said.

"What is it Jonouchi?" Kaiba replied.

"Your cook is a bit weird. What's up with that?"

"Well, she's not really the cook, more of a housekeeper. It's the cook's day off today."

"She's still weird though. Where on earth did you get her from?"

"I believe that Gozaburo won her in a card game not long after he adopted Mokuba and myself."

"Duel Monsters?" Jou asked, intrigued.

"No, I believe it was a game of Poker," Kaiba explained. "She was used as collateral for the debts of the losing party, but that was years ago and there is no sign of the money ever being repaid. She seems happy enough here though, even if she is a little... eccentric."

"Well I like her," Jou said. "I noticed that you spoke to her in English. Where does she come from?"

"I think I recall that she comes from somewhere in Ireland where she was the housekeeper for some priests..."

Jou made a *snerk* sound and nearly choked on his sandwich.

"What is it?" Seto asked.

"Nothing, priest," Jou said in his worst imitation of Yami Bakura and dissolved into a heap of giggling laughter.

Seto *humphed* and reached for a sandwich. Jou had to know that he didn't like to think about his past life that much, but even he had to admit, to himself at least, that it was strangely coincidental. To take his mind off it he bit into the sandwich and almost choked. "What the hell is this?" he exclaimed.

"It's an egg and cress sandwich," Jou replied in all seriousness as he reached for another.

"But I hate egg and cress sandwiches," Seto said. "I told her to make chicken sandwiches!"

"Well, they are kind of chicken sandwiches..." Jou mused.

"How on earth could this possibly be a chicken sandwich," Seto demanded incredulously.

"Ok, it's a _potential_ chicken sandwich. After all, if the egg hadn't ended up in that sandwich you're holding right now, it might well have been a chicken one day." Jou started laughing again at the dumbfounded look on Kaiba's face. He'd never seen Kaiba being so open with his emotions before and he found that he really liked it.

"I should really fire her..." Seto mused after a moment.

"Oh come on, she's not that bad," Jou defended her, "and she makes a mean pot of tea. Ryou would love her."

Seto sighed, "OK, seeing as you like her I won't fire her, not that she'd leave anyway, but in future we'll have to make the sandwiches."

Jou smiled at the thought of coming to Kaiba's mansion again. "Thanks Kaiba. You aren't really such a bad guy after all."

"Don't let it get out. My reputation is on the line here," Seto dead-panned.

"No worries, your secret is safe with me!" Jou gave him a mock salute as he reached for yet another sandwich.

Seto looked at Jonouchi as he continued to devour the sandwiches and cups of tea that Mrs Doyle brought and wondered what the hell he had let himself in for by letting Jonouchi into his life, but after a while he shook his head and rejoined Jonouchi in playing video games.

There would be plenty of time for him to figure it out later.

xo xo xo xo xo xo xo

**A/N** - To reiterate - Just in case you didn't read the whole A/N at the top - this story contains **uke Seto**. I wrote it that way because someone stated that Kaiba could never be bottom, so I decided that he could. It has to be said that since then I have come around to the thinking that they'd actually switch it up a bit, but for the purposes of this particular story Jou is top and Kaiba is bottom.

Thanks for reading. Chapter 2 should come soon.


	2. Chapter 2

**Disclaimer:** I do not own YuGiOh!. That pleasure belongs to Kazuki Takahashi. I also do not own Father Ted. That belongs to Hat Trick and Channel 4. This is solely written for fun and not for profit.

xo xo xo xo xo xo xo

After playing video games together for several hours, Jonouchi and Kaiba were inevitably interrupted.

"Seto! I'm home!" Mokuba called out as he made a bee line for the lounge, obviously having been told that Seto was there by the housekeeper. However, he stopped short at the unusual sight of Seto and Jou playing Mario Cart and laughing as they knocked each other off the track.

"Hey there, Mokuba," Jou called out cheerfully.

"Mokuba," Seto said evenly, "What are you doing home so early?

Mokuba's eyes widened as he realised that for once his ever punctual brother must have lost track of time. "It's not early, Seto," he replied, "It's already gone 5pm. You know I come home late on Tuesdays as I have an after school club."

Jou jumped up in shock. "It's already after five? Shit! I should have been at work at five!" he turned to Seto, panic clearly showing on his face, "Can I use your phone please?"

"Yes, of course," Seto replied and gestured towards a door, "Just go through into the next room so you can have some privacy."

"Thanks Kaiba," Jou said as he raced through the door to use the phone.

Now alone with Mokuba, Seto braced himself for the inevitable third degree. Mokuba didn't disappoint him. "So what is going on? Why is Jou here? Did you really skip school today? How..."

"Stop, Mokuba!" Seto exclaimed, "One thing at a time." With that he explained how the Principal had found them and misunderstood the situation and thought they were fighting, although he didn't tell of Jou's initial reaction to being caught. He also explained how the Principal came up with the idea to send them off to spend the day with each other so that they could learn to get along and how they had ended up spending the rest of the day distracted playing video games until Mokuba had come in.

"So, is anything happening between you and Jou?" Mokuba asked slyly.

Seto gave him a reproving look, then subsided. "Nothing is going to happen, at least not at the moment," he sighed. "It's... complicated. I only found out that he actually likes me today, but we both have issues standing in the way."

Mokuba was accustomed to seeing the more vulnerable side of Seto, even if it didn't come out very often. He hugged his brother. "Don't worry, Seto," he said, "if it's meant to be, you'll work it out somehow."

"Thanks Mokuba," Seto said as he returned the hug, "Your support means a lot to me. I just need to be patient, that's all. I'm sure it will work out in the end."

"That's the spirit, big brother!" Mokuba exclaimed.

Seto smiled as Mokuba hugged him, but inside he was frowning. Yes, the day had been eye opening in more ways than one and to his surprise he'd found that he'd really enjoyed Jonouchi's company, but now, seemingly in a heartbeat, the day was all but over.

He couldn't help but wonder where things would go from here. Would their lives go back to the way they were, albeit with less fighting? A truce had been agreed after all, but once Jou was back with the Geek Squad, how well would it hold?

Kaiba shook his head. If there was one thing that he knew about Jonouchi it was that he was a man of his word, so he couldn't see this truce slipping unless he himself started something. He supposed that as much as he disliked the uncertainty, he'd just have to wait and see what happened next.

xo xo xo xo xo xo xo

In the next room, Jonouchi wasn't having much luck. "Please, Mr. Seguchi," he pleaded, "It won't happen again I swear!"

"I'm sorry, Jonouchi," the dispassionate voice came down the phone line. "I can't accept your unreliability any more. Come over to pick up your pay cheque and cards on Friday. I need an employee who is going to be reliable and I'm afraid that you just don't cut it."

"Isn't there _anything_ I can do to change your mind?" Jou was desperate now and he didn't care to disguise it.

"I'm sorry Jonouchi. I'll see you on Friday," and with that, Seguchi hung up.

Jou despondently dropped the receiver back into the cradle and dropped his head into his hands as he slowly sank to the floor. What the hell was he supposed to do now? He had worked hard at that job but thanks to a few slip ups he had lost it. He paled as he thought of what the reaction from his father would be. He didn't want to think of what the elder Jonouchi might do to him – or make him do - for losing this job.

Jonouchi sat quietly for a few moments taking deep breaths in order to get his emotions back under control before he had to go back and face Kaiba. He knew that he couldn't delay for too long as either Kaiba or Mokuba would eventually come looking for him, but after a couple of minutes he thought he had himself back under reasonable control so he stood and quietly walked back into the adjoining room.

"Jonouchi, are you alright?" Mokuba asked, instantly noticing that something was wrong. Jou couldn't bring himself to speak and he cursed himself for not waiting a couple of minutes longer before coming back in.

Seto looked in shock at Jou's face, his pallor making it obvious that something was amiss even though Jou had made some vain attempt at hiding it. "Jonouchi?" he said worriedly, then he sighed. "Come on, I'll drop you off at work on my way to Kaiba Corporation. Where is it that you need to go?"

"Thanks Kaiba," Jou was thankful that he managed to speak without his voice cracking, "I appreciate the offer but... I don't need to go. In fact I don't need to go there ever again except to pick up my final pay-packet and papers."

"They fired you?" Mokuba said in surprise, "How come?"

"Well," Jou began hesitantly with a flick of his eyes to Kaiba, "I've ended up in detention quite a few times lately which in turn meant that I was late for work. The last time I was late they told me that if I was late again they would fire me." He sighed, "Today was that day."

Seto felt a small stab of guilt go through him as he knew that he had caused Jou to get most of those detentions. He couldn't help himself, it had been fun getting Jou so riled up that he attacked him, plus he wanted to see how far he could push things before one of the teachers finally gave the mighty Kaiba Seto a detention. It hadn't happened yet - in fact today was the closest he'd come to that goal. If he'd known that Jonouchi had a job to go to he might have taunted him about it a little, but he certainly wouldn't have gone out of his way to get him fired. Well, that's what he told himself anyway.

"Why do you even need to work at all?" Kaiba asked suddenly. "Surely you should be out with the Geek Squad playing games and living it up." Seto couldn't help feeling slightly bitter as he said that. He'd always been a bit jealous of Jonouchi's seeming freedom whereas he was constrained by the responsibilities of both Kaiba Corporation and Mokuba. To find that this was another thing that he had been wrong about with regards to Jou really did leave a bitter taste in his mouth.

Jou paused, carefully considering how to answer. His eyes flicked towards Mokuba who caught on and made an excuse to leave. "Hey guys, I have some homework to do. I'll leave you to it and see you later."

Jou waited until the door had closed then looked towards Kaiba. "Right now I want to rip you a new one about not understanding that not everyone has money ya know, but I promised a truce." He took a deep breath, knowing that he couldn't stall any longer. "Well, things aren't all that great at home." Jou mentally grimaced. That was an understatement if ever there was one. "My dad can't get work so money is tight and anything I earn helps."

Seto felt another stab of guilt although something about the story didn't ring completely true but he was sure he would put his finger on whatever was amiss before too long and get Jou to tell him the whole truth. For the moment, however... "Let me help you."

"What?" Jou's eyes looked like they were about to pop out of his head. "No way Kaiba. I'm sorry, but I can't accept your charity."

Seto smiled. "Do you know how many people would snatch my hand off or try to take me for as much as they could? That's just one of the things that has me convinced that you are the right person for this. I want you to come and work for me." He held up his hand to forestall Jou's inevitable protest, "I need a personal assistant but up until now there has been no-one I could trust enough to give the position to. I know you well enough to know that you are loyal and trustworthy and that your code of honour would stop you from telling any secrets, even if things don't work out." He gave Jou a look that he hoped conveyed his sincerity. "You would be doing me a favour, really."

"Are you sure?" Jou asked with some trepidation. "You know my grades aren't the best..."

"Completely," Seto replied without hesitation, "The grades aren't really that much of an issue. Besides which, I'm sure that with the right motivation we can change that."

Jou's mind started working overtime. He wasn't one hundred percent certain that working so closely with Kaiba would be a good idea, especially in the light of this morning's events, but he really needed a job and the prospects of getting another on short notice weren't good. "What exactly does the job involve?" he asked by way of prolonging his thinking time.

"It means that you would only be answerable to me," Seto explained. "You would run errands for me, sometimes answer the personal phone if I'm indisposed and file some sensitive data that I couldn't trust my other workers to do amongst other things."

"Ah, you mean like a glorified secretary and general dogsbody all rolled into one?" Jou asked.

Seto smiled, a genuine smile that reached his eyes. "You said it, not me!" he said in amusement.

Jou's breath was taken away by the brilliant smile on Kaiba's face even as he mentally face-palmed at what he had inadvertently said. "OK, I walked into that one," he admitted.

"But seriously Jonouchi," Seto said, "You must realise that I'm not the easiest person to work for…"

"I'll bet that's the understatement of the year!" Jou interjected teasingly.

"Ahem, quite." Seto got things back on track, "Apart from not having anyone I could trust enough to do this, I get the impression that most people wouldn't want to work so closely with me for that long anyway. This means that I have to spend longer at the office than I would like so that I can see to these things myself. Yes, I could trust Mokuba to do it, but I want him to have his childhood and freedom as far as is possible."

"Yeah, I get ya," Jou said, suddenly feeling uncomfortable as there was a big question that needed to be asked, "So... uh... how much will you be paying me for putting up with your attitude?" He smiled to take the sting out of the question, then Kaiba named a figure that had Jou reeling in shock. "How much?" he exclaimed.

"I know it's not the full rate," Seto began in a slightly apologetic tone, "but there is some training that you will need to undergo and once you have the experience your pay level will rise accordingly." He looked at Jou who was gaping like a fish out of water. "Is there something wrong?"

"It's just that..." Jou was still visibly flustered, "what you are going to pay me just for starting, its way beyond what I could ever have hoped to earn at my old job."

"Well, you are going to be personal assistant to the great Kaiba Seto," he smirked, "of course you will be paid accordingly. You'll earn every penny too."

Jou didn't know what to say, so he simply threw himself at Kaiba and gave him the biggest hug of his life. "Thank you Kaiba," he gasped out, "You won't regret this, I swear."

"You're welcome Jonouchi," Seto said with a smile, "and I'm sure that I won't regret it, but usually a handshake would be enough to seal the deal."

Jou released Kaiba and stepped back with a blush on his face. "Ah, sorry," he stammered and put his hand out for Seto to shake. Kaiba had just clasped hands with Jou when there was a flash and the artificial electronic sound of a shutter being fired. The two boys blinked and turned to find a smirking Mokuba standing there with the camera that Seto had given him for his birthday.

"Mokuba?" Seto said with some surprise. "I thought you went to do your homework."

Mokuba shook his head. "I'm sorry, but I had to come back and take a picture of you two getting along or I might have thought I'd dreamed the whole thing," he said dramatically.

Seto sighed, "Very funny," he said. "Can we see the picture please?" Mokuba handed the camera over so Seto and Jou could crowd together to see the image on the built in screen. One look showed them that the principal would more than likely be satisfied that they had settled their differences if they were to show him this. Seto knew that he could probably talk the man round if he decided to be difficult, but this would still help immensely in case of any problem. "Thank you Mokuba," he said as he handed the camera back, "could you print a couple of copies for me please?"

"Sure thing Seto," Mokuba replied with a grin.

Seto turned back to Jou. "Well, we'd best be off to Kaiba Corporation then."

"What, I'm starting today?" Jou asked, dumbfounded.

"No time like the present," Seto said, "especially as you were supposed to be working today anyway."

"Seto?" Mokuba put a whole question into that one word.

"Mokuba, meet my new personal assistant, Jonouchi Katsuya." Seto said. Jou blushed.

"That's great Seto!" Mokuba exclaimed, "I'm glad you finally found someone for the job." He looked to Jou, "I'm sure you'll do great!"

"Thanks Mokuba, I'll do my best," Jou said, then he blushed again as his stomach growled loudly.

"Hungry already?" Seto asked in amusement.

"Well yeah, it has been a long time since those sandwiches," Jou said. "And how come you're not hungry? You didn't eat very much then so you should be starving by now."

"Seto, have you been skipping meals again?" Mokuba asked with clear exasperation in his tone. Seto didn't say anything, although he had the grace to look a little embarrassed.

"You skip meals, Kaiba?" Jou asked. "No wonder you are so skinny."

"Jou!" Mokuba exclaimed, "As Seto's personal assistant you have to care for his health so you have to make sure that he eats properly and regularly. The well being of your boss should always be at the forefront of your mind."

"Yes, Mini-boss," Jou gave a salute and Mokuba giggled. "Do I get to call my boss out if he's being an ass, too?"

"I'm sure you would anyway, whether he wants you to or not." Mokuba smirked.

"Alright, alright," Seto said in resignation. I'll order some food in when we get to the office. Is that OK with you, 'mini-boss'."

Mokuba smirked, "As long as it's OK with Jou."

"It's fine with me," Jou said.

"I'll be back later then, Mokuba. Don't wait up for me." Seto said. "And don't forget to do your homework."

"Ok, big-brother. Bye Jonouchi."

"See ya, Squirt."

xo xo xo xo xo xo xo

Once the pair arrived at the office, Kaiba ordered dinner to be sent up. While they waited for the food to arrive, they did the necessary paperwork to commence Jonouchi's employment. Once that was dealt with, Seto couldn't help but watch in amusement as Jou unashamedly ploughed through his share of the food.

Jou looked up at Seto as he realised that the other wasn't eating. "Come on Kaiba. Mokuba said I had to make sure you ate and you are hardly touching anything."

"Oh I'm going to eat," Seto said, "I'm just fascinated by how much you can shovel away." He pondered for a moment. "So how come you're not the size of a house? From how I've seen you eat, even the most over-active metabolism wouldn't be able to keep up with that all the time."

Jou paused in his eating, appetite suddenly lost. He knew that Kaiba was showing him a lot of trust by giving him this job and opening up to him the way he had. He could damage the fragile trust that had built up if Seto caught him in a lie now and with no Mokuba to potentially overhear...

Decision made Jou began to speak. "Look, Kaiba, I told you earlier that things are tight at home. I really wasn't kidding about that, but what I didn't tell you is that not only can my dad not get a job, but he drinks away any money he gets. If it weren't for me bringing some money in we would have been thrown out of our apartment a long time ago. As it is I only just earn enough to pay the bills. There isn't much left for anything else afterwards, especially after my dad gets to drinking, so when you see me eat it may be my only meal of the day. I've felt fuller today than I have in a long time. Thank you."

Seto was stunned. He knew that Jonouchi had it bad, but he hadn't realised it was that bad. "Isn't there anyone that could help you?" he asked.

"You have helped me more than you realise by giving me this chance Kaiba," Jou said with genuine gratitude, "For once I can actually see a light at the end of the tunnel. Of course the hard part is going to be keeping how much I'm earning from my dad..."

Seto smirked at the Jou's attempt at misdirection, "I was talking about your friends, Pup."

"I know you were," Jou sighed, "There's no getting anything past you is there?" He looked down. "I didn't want to burden them with my problems. They have their own stuff to deal with and they don't need to be worrying about me on top of that." He looked up again, the picture of optimism, "Besides, I only need to last until I turn 18 and I'll be out of there so fast..."

"I understand," Seto said. He still suspected that the other boy wasn't telling him the whole truth and that there was more to his story than he was letting on, but he knew that Jou had his pride and if he said anything that implied that Jou couldn't handle his own problems it would only insult him. He stood and walked around the table to place his hand on Jou's shoulder in a show of support. "At least promise me that if you end up in more trouble than you can handle, you will tell me."

Jou shook his head, "It's fine, Kaiba. You've already done enough. I can't ask you to do any more."

"Promise me, Jou," Seto insisted "There is no shame in asking for help if you need it."

Jou deflated, "There really is no need, but alright, I promise," he said.

"That's all I ask for," Seto said. "Now, if you've had enough, let's show you the ropes around here."

"Hold it!" Jou exclaimed. "Mokuba said it was part of my job to make sure that you eat properly. You've hardly eaten enough to keep a bird alive so sit down and eat!"

"Alright, alright," Seto conceded. He could tell that Jou was going to make a great personal assistant already. Not being afraid to talk back to him was just one of the qualities that were required and Jou had that in spades.

xo xo xo xo xo xo xo

Later that evening, Kaiba dropped Jonouchi back at his home and he didn't even try to hide his disgust at the run down neighbourhood that Jou lived in. He almost reiterated his offer for Jou to contact him if he found himself in trouble, but he stopped himself. He had already extracted the promise from Jonouchi earlier and for the moment he would have to be happy with that. He waved at Jou, then drove away.

Jou stood at the kerb for a moment and watched Kaiba drive away. Today had certainly been a roller-coaster ride and he was almost sad that it was over, although he had to admit that he was looking forward to seeing where things went from here. Having Kaiba as a friend was certainly much better than having him as an enemy in any case.

Once Kaiba had driven out of sight, Jou made his way up the stairs and into the dingy apartment he shared with his father, hoping that his dad would not be at home. Unfortunately, his luck was out that night.

"Boy," a rough voice came out from the living room, "Where have you been until now?"

"I've been at work," Jou started, then instinctively stepped back as a fist flew through the place he had been a moment before.

"Don't lie to me boy. I know darned well that you got sacked from that burger joint tonight, so where the hell have you been."

"I ain't lyin'" Jou insisted, "I got a new job and I've been there all evening."

"Bullshit. There ain't no way that you could have gotten another job that fast." The elder Jonouchi stepped towards his son threateningly.

"Dammit pops I am telling the truth. I got a job at Kaiba Corporation." He showed his new employee ID card to prove that he was telling the truth."

Jonouchi senior eyed the card sceptically. "So what they got ya doin'?" He asked, but spoke again before Jou could answer, "Actually I don't give a fuck what they got ya doin' as long as the money comes in. So what they payin' ya?"

"A little more than I was earning at that burger joint," Jou was purposefully evasive. He didn't like to lie, but that didn't mean that he couldn't skirt around the truth a bit.

"Well, that's OK then," the older man said, then without warning he swung out and caught Jou right in the jaw with his fist. The teen slammed back against the wall and slumped to the floor. "That's for losing the job in the first place and making me worry." He left Jou there and went back to drinking beer and watching the TV.

Jou picked himself up and slowly made his way to his room. Yeah, the bastard was worried alright; worried about where his next drink was coming from. He gingerly felt at his jaw. He should have known that the bastard would find an excuse to hit him anyway.

"Just a few more months and I can get out of here…" that was his mantra as he made himself ready for bed. Kaiba had given him an excellent chance and he wasn't about to waste it!

xo xo xo xo xo xo xo

**A/N** - Thank you for reading - FFnet finally fixed the problems with uploading so I could add the character filters - Now I just hope that they stop turning all my alerts off. ¬_¬


	3. Chapter 3

**Disclaimer:** I do not own YuGiOh!. That pleasure belongs to Kazuki Takahashi. I also do not own Father Ted. That belongs to Hat Trick and Channel 4. This is solely written for fun and not for profit.

**A/N** - First off I would like to say that I understand and respect all points of view when it comes to who is seme and who is uke and I also like to read stories whichever way up the pairing is. However, lately there seems to be a bit of a fight brewing over whether Kaiba can be uke or not which is something I really don't want to get involved in beyond reiterating that people are free to write whatever they like and as long as they warn where it is appropriate then there should not be a problem.

Please bear in mind that I actually started writing this story in September 2009. I wrote it with Kaiba as uke because someone somewhere said that he could never be that way - and because I like to be contrary I decided to write it anyway. Hell, I can't even remember who said it or where I read it now.

I wrote this story for my own enjoyment, because I find it fun to write and while it is nice if other people like it (and I do appreciate every review, alert and favourite), it is not the end of the world if they don't.

xo xo xo xo xo xo xo

First thing the next morning, both Jou and Seto reported to the principal who seemed to be more than pleased that his strategy had paid off (although both Kaiba and Jonouchi rolled their eyes at this). He was also quite agreeable to the prospect of Jou working for Kaiba as it was likely to help them avoid slipping back into their previous behaviour. Of course he added the rider that if Jou's school-work were to suffer for it then he would be expected to quit, but both Jou and Kaiba assured him that this would not be the case.

Jou's friends greeted the news of his truce with Kaiba with various states of acceptance and disbelief, from Yugi's 'Good, it's about time' to Honda's frank scepticism. However, at the news that Jou was now working with Kaiba as his personal assistant, it was Otogi that objected.

"What? How come he's got _you_ working for him?" Otogi exclaimed.

"Well..." Jou looked around at his friend's expectant faces and knew he wouldn't be able to dodge answering, "We kinda lost track of time yesterday afternoon so I ended up being late for work..."

"So you got sacked, right?" Honda interrupted with a scowl. "I knew that bastard would get you fired one day."

"You're right," Jou said, "and I suppose that after I told Kaiba why I'd been sacked, he felt kind of guilty about it so he offered me the job as his personal assistant..."

"Oh spin me another one," Otogi said disparagingly. "Kaiba doesn't know how to feel guilt. He's probably just doing this in order to humiliate you somehow."

"I don't think he'd do that," Jou said, putting a brave face on things although he _was _beginning to feel a little less certain in the cold light of day and under the scrutiny of his friends.

"Well I think it's great," Anzu said with a smile, giving Jou a much needed boost. "I'm really happy for you."

"I agree," Yugi said. "I always knew that if you two could stop snapping at each other for five minutes you could be... friends." There was an odd inflection to Yugi's words that had Jou looking at him sharply, but he was soon distracted before he could think about it too much.

"Humph," Otogi seemed a little miffed that only Honda had sided with him, but then his eyes lit on the quietest member of the group. "What do you think, Ryou?"

Ryou looked up nervously. "I.. I'm sorry, Otogi, but I'm afraid that I have to agree with Yugi and Anzu. I never liked Jou and Kaiba fighting all the time and I'm glad that it's over with."

"Thanks guys," Jou said, eyeing both Honda and Otogi askance. "I'm glad at least _some _of my friends can be pleased for me."

Honda looked guilty. "Sorry man, you're right. I guess it _is_ a good thing that you are going to get on with Kaiba better now. At least you won't be stuck in detention all the time."

"You probably still won't see him outside of school," Otogi pointed out waspishly. "Kaiba will work Jou to the bone then once he's done with him, he'll simply toss him to one side."

"Look, Otogi," Jou was starting to get annoyed now, "I don't know why you are so upset about this, but I need this job and I am working for Kaiba. Nothing that _you _have to say is going to change that. Got it?"

"Fine," Otogi finally subsided, knowing that he was onto a loser here with no-one supporting him. "In that case I suppose I should congratulate you," he said sullenly.

"Well, I'm _so_ pleased to hear that I have your approval," a sarcastic voice said from behind them." They turned to see Kaiba standing with his arms crossed and an annoyed look on his face.

"Kaiba!" Yugi exclaimed. "Will you sit with us?"

Kaiba gave Yugi a look that simply said 'are you crazy?' before turning to Jou. "Jonouchi, I expect to see you in my office at no later than five today, so make sure you don't end up in detention," he snapped. Then, without waiting for an answer, he whirled around and stalked off.

Jou watched him go, a neutral expression on his face. He had known that this was likely to happen as they had discussed it earlier, but it still felt... weird. He was kind of disappointed that Kaiba wasn't prepared to let the truce extend to letting his friends in, but in Jou's view this was still a start and things _could _change in the future...

"What the hell?" Honda finally said as Kaiba left the room, bringing Jou's attention back to the rest of the group.

"Well, it looks like I was right," Otogi said smugly. "Kaiba is going to treat Jou really badly."

Jou shook his head. "No, you're wrong," he said. "I'm sorry to say that just because _I'm_ getting on with Kaiba a bit better now, you shouldn't expect that to extend to the rest of you and he's not likely to treat me all that much differently either, at least not outside of Kaiba Corporation." He shrugged, "I suppose that things might change in the future, but don't count on it."

"That's OK Jou. It's a start, at least," Yugi said with a smile, unknowingly echoing Jou's earlier thought.

"Thanks Yug'," Jou said with some gratitude. "I knew you'd understand."

Otogi wasn't exactly happy with this and was about to say something else, but the bell rang for class and it was put out of their minds. At least for the moment.

xo xo xo xo xo xo xo

For several weeks after that, Jou worked for Kaiba without incident and Jou's friends, happy that the fighting had stopped at least, had let the matter drop. Jou did catch Otogi giving him odd looks from time to time, but he didn't bother about it as it didn't matter to him what Otogi thought.

Kaiba's 18th birthday came and went and the CEO had imperceptibly relaxed since that milestone had passed. Now that he was a legal adult, it consolidated his position with regard to both staying on as CEO of Kaiba Corporation and keeping custody of Mokuba. Not that social services had stopped sticking their noses in where they were neither needed or wanted, but they all knew that he now had a much lesser chance of losing any case if anyone were to decide to cause trouble and try to challenge his custody of Mokuba for failing to 'stay in line'.

As Jou continued to work for Kaiba, he noticed that Jou was extremely quick to pick things up and showed aptitude and intelligence way beyond his school grades. He resolved to ask Jou about it when the opportunity presented itself, however, he felt that he had to be at least somewhat careful about it. For all that they were getting along better now, they were both still walking on eggshells around each other somewhat, neither of them wanting to either cause an argument that would sour things between them, or to end up taking the step that they had avoided on the day that the principal had caught them 'fighting'.

It had been a close run thing on both counts. On one occasion, Jou had done something that, under normal circumstances, should have been seen as only minorly irritating, but Kaiba had been in a foul mood and threatened to fire him. That only lasted until Jou's expression turned stricken and he'd begged with Kaiba to reconsider. Despite that, Kaiba had been about to tell him to get out of his sight when he remembered what Jou had told him in confidence on that first evening of working for him. He then shocked Jou as he apologised and promised that he would not threaten that again, at least not without a _good_reason.

Then there had been the occasional glances and touches that had both of them blushing. The attraction that they had avoided mentioning since that first day had not gone away, but because of their issues neither of them could bring themselves to chance going any further, instead contenting themselves with keeping the status quo. However, it was getting more difficult as the longer they spent together, the more they found that they were attracted to each other. Something was bound to give eventually.

The tipping point was to come one Friday evening when Jou was late for work. In all the time Jou had been working for Kaiba he had never been late even once, so this instantly had Seto on edge. He was about to call Jonouchi on his KC issue cell phone when he heard signs of a disturbance just outside his office door. He opened the link on the intercom to listen in, just in case he needed to call security.

"...can't go in there looking like that, Jonouchi. Whatever would Mr. Kaiba say? We do have standards here you know." The disparaging voice of his secretary came across the com-link.

"Look, Keiko," Jonouchi said with obvious weariness in his voice, "I know you don't like me and you know that I hate to pull rank on anyone like this, but I'm not answerable to you. I answer only to Kaiba himself, so I am going to go into that office even if I have to physically move you out of the way."

"Don't push me Jonouchi," the woman hissed, "I don't know how in hell you managed to get the personal assistant's job but you don't deserve..." Kaiba had heard enough. He was already on his way over to the door and he flung it open before Keiko could complete that sentence.

"You won't finish that thought if you still want to have a job here tomorrow, Miss Nakamura," Kaiba growled. Then he noticed Jou and his eyes widened at the dishevelled look of his personal assistant. He had a couple of shallow cuts on his face and the beginnings of what was obviously going to be a killer black eye. From his posture, Kaiba was sure that Jou was hurt elsewhere as well.

"Jonouchi!" he exclaimed. "What happened to you?" He pushed his stunned secretary out of the way and steered the other boy into his office as he shot an 'I'll deal with you later' look at the woman and closed the door behind him.

Jonouchi winced as Kaiba guided him over to a chair and made him sit down. "It's not as bad as it looks," Jou said with not a little bravado.

"Nonsense!" Kaiba exclaimed. He gently prodded Jonouchi's side which caused him to wince visibly. Kaiba's expression softened, "Now, tell me what happened. How did you end up in this state?"

Jou knew that he had to tell Seto the truth – at least some of it anyway. They had come a long way in their friendship over the last several weeks of working together and he trusted Kaiba a lot more now than he had at the beginning of this arrangement.

"Remember that press conference you had today?" When Kaiba nodded Jou continued, "When they asked about your new personal assistant and my name was mentioned my dad suddenly realised that I was earning a helluva lot more money than I was letting on..."

"So he made you give him more money?" Kaiba interjected.

Jou nodded. "I was pretty sure that something like this would happen eventually, but I can tell you that he didn't get all of it." He grinned tiredly.

"Is that the only reason?" Kaiba asked sceptically.

Jou didn't trust himself to speak. It wasn't the only reason by a long shot. No the main reason was that his dad wanted to make sure that he wasn't being a 'fag' and because, in his dad's opinion, he was just a glorified secretary which was 'women's work'. The man had even tried to get him to spill some of Kaiba's secrets, but Jou had adamantly refused. He would sooner die than betray someone's trust and the only way he'd managed to get his dad off his back had been to give him quite a substantial amount of money. However, he couldn't bring himself to tell Kaiba any of this. He winced as Kaiba applied some antiseptic to one of the cuts on his face.

Seto sighed as it became clear that Jonouchi wasn't going to answer. "Well, you've almost completed your training, and much more quickly than I anticipated, so your pay will go up to the appropriate level," he said with pride. His puppy was really something. "He doesn't need to know about that, does he?" He paused, sensing that now was as an appropriate a time as any, "It does make me wonder though..." he mused.

"Oh?" Jou said.

Kaiba gave Jou a frank look. "to be honest, your grades in school have been utterly abysmal, but in contrast your work here has been nothing short of exceptional. If your achievements here were translated to your school-work you should be near to or at the top of your classes. I just don't get it." Seto was truly bemused by this.

"Maybe I just don't get the inspiration or motivation to do well at school," Jou evaded.

"I'm sorry, I don't buy that," Seto said, "This has come so naturally to you that, in my opinion, you should at least have been getting passing grades in most of your classes without even trying."

Jou sighed, knowing that he would have to explain things in a little more detail. "Look, Kaiba, I was in a gang. If I had done anything like well in school it wouldn't have gone well for me." He shrugged. "I guess it became habit to just slack my way along after a while. Then after my mom took Shizuka away and my dad turned to drink, I didn't see the point, after all, it wasn't like I had a parent to encourage me. Feh, my dad didn't give a shit and he still doesn't care how I do in school as long as I can work to feed his drinking habit." He looked Seto in the eye, "I have been trying to turn things around since I became friends with Yugi, but it's kinda hard when some of the teachers are still prejudiced against me, I was ending up in detention all the time for fighting and I was working all hours to make ends meet. It is getting better now, but I still don't get the peace I need to do my homework at home."

"Jonouchi," Seto said gently, "If things are so bad at home couldn't you just leave and get your own place? You are certainly earning enough money to pay for it now."

"Nah," Jonouchi said, "No-one wants to rent a place to a school kid, especially one with my kind of background." He shook his head, "Besides that, my dad would only get Social Services to bring me back. They might let it go now that I'm so close to turning 18, but I'm not willing to take the chance. At least my dad seems to have forgotten _when_ my birthday is. He hasn't even mentioned it for years and I'm certainly not about to remind him."

Seto interjected here, "Talking of Social Services, Couldn't they have done something for you?" Knowing how Social Services were, at least around these parts, he suspected that he already knew the answer to that particular question, but he still had to ask.

"Hah!" Jou exclaimed bitterly, "Not likely. Even if they gave a crap, how would they help me? My mom wants nothing to do with me even though I got the money for Shizuka's surgery. That was something else I got into major trouble with my dad for, but it was worth it so that she could see again." He paused, "No, I'd probably end up in a foster home somewhere or other, probably not even in Domino."

"They'd send you out of Domino?" Kaiba's eyebrows raised.

Jou nodded. "Because I was in a gang, they'd probably take the opportunity to ship me out to somewhere else, away from the so-called 'bad influences'. I saw it happen to one of the other ex-gang members, although to be fair he was a little younger than I am now." He shook his head again, "Even if my home life is crap, Domino is where I belong and my whole life is here."

Seto gasped as Jou looked up into his eyes. He could see all the pain and longing there and he knew that even if he'd treated Jou really badly in the past, at least part of the reason that Jou had chosen his path was because of Seto himself. Faced with that truth he could not hold back any longer and he leaned forwards to claim Jou's lips in a soft kiss. He was doubly pleased when not only did Jonouchi respond, but surged to his feet and took control. Seto surrendered happily, revelling Jou's total domination of the embrace. He absently wondered where Jou had learned to kiss like that as he was so good at it, but he found that he didn't really care.

After several moments of utter bliss, Jou pulled away, seemingly confused over Kaiba's utter quiescence despite the fact that he'd found it quite arousing. However, he decided to put that to one side for the moment then looked Kaiba directly in the eye. "Not to put a downer on things, but isn't it against the rules to get involved with your employees?" he asked.

"Screw the rules," Seto flashed a smirk at him, "I'm the CEO here and I make the rules! Besides, what better than to have just one person keeping both my boardroom and bedroom secrets?"

Jou looked at Kaiba quizzically at that last, then sighed. "I'm still worried about it getting out but I'm tired of fighting this. I want to be with you, I'm pretty sure you want to be with me and we spend enough time together that I don't think anyone would notice as long as we are careful. What do you say?" He looked up at Kaiba with hope and expectation.

"I think we can give it a go," Seto said with one of his rare genuine smiles, then he stood away from Jou. "Come on, Pup. We're not going to get anything done here tonight. Come home with me so that I can get you cleaned up and tend to your injuries properly. You can even stay the night if you want. In a guest room of course," he added hastily.

"Thanks, Kaiba," Jou said, "It's probably for the best if I stay away from home for the night anyway." He made a mental note to call Yugi and ask his friend to cover for him in the unlikely event that his dad wanted to know where he had been. If his dad were to find out that he'd stayed with Kaiba, then his reaction had the potential to be quite bad. Not that the ass would probably notice as he'd got enough money now to drink himself into oblivion for several nights. Now if only the old fucker would drink enough to give himself alcohol poisoning... Feh, he should be so lucky.

As they left the office together, Seto turned to address his secretary. "I'm going home for the evening and I am not to be disturbed unless it is a dire emergency." He then sent her a withering glare, "Also, do not presume to stop Jonouchi from entering my office in future, no matter what he looks like. I told you in no uncertain terms that Jonouchi is only answerable to me and I meant it!"

"But Mr. Kaiba," the woman was not about to let things go, "can't you see what kind of person he is? He isn't worthy to be your personal assistant!"

"And I suppose you think that _you_are a more worthy candidate for the job?" Seto asked with a dangerous undertone to his voice.

Jou's comment of, "Hey, I'm right here you know," went ignored by both parties.

The secretary either missed Kaiba's tone completely or chose to ignore it, "As it happens yes I do, but having said that, even the man that cleans the toilets would be more worthy than this piece of," she gave Jonouchi a contemptuous glance, "street trash."

"Well, luckily for me, it's not your decision to make. So tell me, Miss Nakamura, what exactly do you know about Jonouchi that makes you think you are in a position to judge his character so harshly?"

"I don't need to know anything about him to know street trash when I see it," she countered, giving Jonouchi a filthy look as she did so.

"Well, for your information," Kaiba began, bringing Keiko's attention back to him, "Jonouchi is exactly what I need for this position. I don't need to justify myself to you, but I will tell you this much; he is loyal to a fault and will never betray my secrets. He is also not afraid to tell me what he thinks even if it is disadvantageous to himself." Seto pierced the secretary with a glare, making her step back. "He also understands Duel Monsters. Can you say the same?" He knew that she could not. "If you had bothered to get to know _anything_about it then you would know that Jonouchi is the third ranked duelist in the world after Yugi Mutou and myself. Did you know that he had only been playing Duel Monsters for mere weeks before he went to Duelist Kingdom?"

"But his academic record..." the woman was grasping at straws now.

"You had no right to look into his records," Seto was beyond angry now, "but they are not a true indicator of his aptitude." He pierced her with a cold glare. "I think I've heard enough from you. You may be a competent secretary, but you have well overstepped your bounds tonight. You can clear your desk and leave my sight."

"But Mr. Kaiba..."

"You are fired, Miss Nakamura. End of discussion."

The woman then turned and launched herself at Jonouchi. "This is all your fault," she hissed as she scratched at his face.

"No way, woman!" Jou said as he fended her off, "You brought this on yourself." He sighed in relief as two burly security guards seemed to come out of nowhere and peeled her off him.

"Remove her from the building this instant," Kaiba instructed the men. "Jonouchi will clear her desk tomorrow and arrange for any of her personal items to be forwarded to her." He watched the men manhandle the struggling woman out of his sight and then escorted Jou into his personal lift. "Are you alright?" he asked. His face was a mask of concern.

"It was nothing," Jou insisted, "It was like fending off a kitten."

"Even kittens have claws," Seto said as he traced a fresh cut on Jou's face. "Are you sure you are alright?"

"I'm more than alright," Jou gave Kaiba one of his biggest smiles, "No-one has ever defended me like that before. I kinda liked it."

"Get used to it," Seto said, then he scowled, "no-one should dare to talk about you like that, let alone in my presence."

Jou smiled at Seto then moved away from him as the lift reached the ground floor. They walked out to the limousine and climbed inside. Jou couldn't disguise a wince as his bruises once again made themselves known. Seto looked at Jou with some concern. "I'm OK, just a little sore," Jou was quick to reassure.

Seto wasn't totally convinced. "If you like, you can take a bath when we get home. I have some special bath salts that should help with the soreness."

"Thanks Kaiba," Jou said as he leaned into the taller man. "I might just take you up on that." Kaiba put his arm around Jou and they travelled on in comfortable silence, both of them wondering how things would develop now that they had taken that next step.

xo xo xo xo xo xo xo

**A/N** - Boy, this chapter gave me some trouble. I had to add a lot to it so that things made a bit more sense and I'm probably not completely happy with it, but I've been fiddling with it for so long that I'm starting to go crosseyed and I think it's past time to move onto the next chapter. That should be up next week sometime all being well.

Thank you for reading.


	4. Chapter 4

**Disclaimer:** I do not own YuGiOh!. That pleasure belongs to Kazuki Takahashi. I also do not own Father Ted. That belongs to Hat Trick and Channel 4. This is solely written for fun and not for profit.

Also, I just want to reiterate that this story is rated **M**. This means, according to the ratings system used on this site, that it is intended for those over **16** years of age.

xo xo xo xo xo xo xo

Soon they arrived at Kaiba's mansion and Seto escorted Jou into the house where they were met by Seto's eccentric housekeeper, Mrs Doyle.

"Good evening Master Seto and Master Katsuya," she greeted cheerfully in her distinctive Irish accented voice.

"Good evening Mrs Doyle," Seto replied, speaking in English, just as Mrs Doyle had done. Jou merely nodded. Seto continued, "Could you make the first guest room ready as Jonouchi will be staying with us tonight. Also could you run a bath for him in the adjoining bathroom?"

"Of course Master Seto," she answered, "but would you not like me to see to Master Katsuya's injuries first?"

"That is quite alright, Mrs Doyle," Seto replied, "I can take care of those."

"OK so," she said then she shuffled away to carry out Seto's wishes.

Kaiba brought Jonouchi through into the kitchen and seated him on one of the bar stools, then he retrieved the first aid kit from one of the numerous cupboards.

"Kaiba?" Jou got the attention of the taller boy.

"Yes, Jonouchi?"

"Why does your housekeeper call everyone by their first name?"

Seto shrugged, "It's just how she is. I've tried to explain that she shouldn't do it, but she just gives me a strange look, says 'OK so' in that way of hers, then just carries on like I never said anything. I've found that it's far less frustrating just to accept it."

"I guess I can live with that," Jou sighed, then he hissed as Seto wiped at his newest wounds with an antiseptic wipe.

"Sorry," Seto said, "Does it really bother you that much?"

"No, I know you have to do it, I can cope."

"Not that, silly pup," Seto said in amusement, "I was talking about my housekeeper."

"Oh, no, it's OK really," Jou said, "It's just that nobody calls me Katsuya except for my sister and, on rare occasions, my mother. It just feels a little weird is all."

"OK, I'm all done here," Seto said, "but I'd like to check your other injuries."

"Um… do you have to?" Jou asked, "I'm fine, really."

"I just want to make sure that you are alright," Seto said gently, "There's nothing to be embarrassed about. It's just for my own peace of mind."

Jou sighed again, then before Kaiba could say anything else, he shed his top and looked Kaiba in the eye defying him to day anything.

Seto gasped. Not just because of the fresh bruises showing up lividly against Jou's pale skin, but because of various old scars that littered his torso. "He reached out and traced one of the more prominent ones with a stunned look upon his face. "Where did you get all those scars?" he asked.

"Actually most of them are a permanent reminder of the time I spent in that gang," Jonouchi couldn't help a touch of shame leaking into his voice. "But this one," he indicated a largish scar on his left shoulder, "this one was where my dad caught me with a broken bottle one night when he was drunk out of his skull and I was lucky he didn't catch an artery or something." He shrugged, "Bastard didn't even remember he'd done it the next morning and it probably wouldn't have scarred so badly if I'd been able to have it treated properly." At the time, Jou had felt that he couldn't even ask for first aid as too many questions would have been asked, so he'd had to patch himself up as best he could and just carry on.

"Things are worse at home than you have let on aren't they?" Seto observed. Jou hung his head which was all the answer that he needed. "You can't stay there," Seto put his arms around Jou and held him close. "I'll worry that he is really going to hurt you…"

"Kaiba," Jou sighed, leaning into Seto's embrace, "I've already explained why I have to stay there for the moment. Please don't worry about me. It's just something I have to get through." What he didn't add was that he didn't want to cause trouble for Kaiba. If it came out that Kaiba was involved with a teen runaway, even if he were only a couple of months short of majority, it could bring his custody of Mokuba into question once again, legal adult or not.

Seto sighed. He could talk Jonouchi into many things, but he knew that this was something that he would be completely unbending on. "Alright pup. I won't mention it again as long as you keep your promise to tell me if things get too bad or you need help."

"Deal," Jonouchi said, then he hastily pulled away and put his shirt back on as Mrs Doyle returned.

"Master Seto," she began, "I've drawn the bath for Master Katsuya. Will I be required to bathe him?"

Jou spoke up quickly, "No, that's OK, Mrs Doyle. I'll be fine on my own thanks."

"OK so," she said completely nonplussed. "I've put you in the guest room opposite Master Seto's room." She turned towards Kaiba. "Will there be anything else Master Seto?"

"Not for the moment, Mrs Doyle," he said, "Although I will be requiring you to launder Jonouchi's clothes later on."

"Very well, Master Seto" she said. "Will you be requiring an evening meal?" she asked. The cook wasn't in, so as things stood it fell to Mrs Doyle to prepare something unless they got take out delivered.

Seto looked at Jonouchi, knowing that it was very likely that he hadn't eaten yet and that Mokuba probably hadn't eaten yet either. "Yes please," he said. "Could you have it ready in about an hour and a half?" Seto now knew better than to ask her to prepare anything in particular as he'd found that he was much more likely to get a palatable meal if he left her to her own devices.

"OK so," she said. She moved towards the sink to fill the kettle in order to make yet another pot of tea as Jou and Kaiba left the kitchen.

"Why in hell did she ask if she'd have to bathe me?" Jou asked once they were out of earshot. Not that it would have mattered as Mrs Doyle didn't speak Japanese.

"She hasn't shared a great deal about her life in Ireland," Seto replied, "but something she did tell me was that one of the priests she was housekeeper for had the mental age of a child and she used to bathe him." He smirked, "She even offered to bathe me once."

Jou repressed a shudder at the mental image of Seto being bathed by the crazy housekeeper, "Man, that's creepy. Do you think she'll come in and try to bathe me anyway?"

"No, I think you are quite safe," Seto reassured him as they reached what would be Jou's room for the night. Seto left Jou to get settled in for a moment as he popped into his own bathroom to fetch the bath salts that he'd offered to Jou earlier on. He came back to find Jou lying spread-eagled on the bed with his legs hanging over the end. "Come on Pup," Seto encouraged, "You don't want to fall asleep before you get to eat, do you?"

"No, I guess not." Jou said with more than a hint of fatigue in his voice. He followed Seto into the bathroom where the other boy emptied some crystals into the water then swirled them around to get them to dissolve thoroughly."

"Will you be alright from here?" Seto asked.

"Yes, thanks Kaiba," Jou said, "But..."

"What is it?"

Jou picked at his clothes. "What am I going to wear afterwards? These clothes are a little..." he trailed off, knowing that he looked like crap.

"I'll arrange something while you are in the bath." Seto thought it likely that he had something in the mansion that would fit the smaller boy's frame. "Just leave your clothes and I'll have Mrs Doyle deal with them."

"Are you sure she won't come in here?" Jou asked with some trepidation. He was still a little freaked out by the offer she had made earlier.

"Don't worry," Seto said amusement, "I'll take them to her myself, then she'll have no need to come anywhere near you." He turned to leave. "I just need to go and check on Mokuba to make sure he's doing his homework, then I'll bring in some clothes and leave them on the bed."

"Ok, thanks Kaiba," Jou said with gratitude.

xo xo xo xo xo xo xo

Seto knocked on Mokuba's door before entering the youngster's room. "Hey Mokie," he said by way of greeting.

"Seto!" Mokuba exclaimed in genuine surprise. "You're home early!"

"Yes, there was an incident at the office which means I'm going to need a new secretary."

"Oh, how come?" Mokuba asked. "She seemed like a decent enough worker to me."

Seto gave a wry smile. "She decided to question my decision to hire Jonouchi as my personal assistant and completely overstepped her bounds as she did so," Seto explained. "I've also brought Jonouchi here as he was injured and he will be staying here tonight."

"Is he OK," Mokuba asked with some concern.

"He's fine, or he insists he is at any rate," Seto replied, "At the moment he is taking a bath in the first guest room."

"How was he injured?" Mokuba asked.

"It's not really relevant Mokuba, and you don't get out of finishing your homework so easily," Seto admonished, knowing that Mokuba was prolonging the conversation in order to avoid it. That and he didn't think it was appropriate to share that information with his brother.

"Ok, Seto," Mokuba replied contritely, knowing he wouldn't get any more from his brother on the subject, "but what are you going to do about a new secretary?"

"As I don't really have the time to spare to deal with it at the moment, I'm going to get Jonouchi to arrange one for me. I know that he is a good judge of character and I'm pretty sure that I can rely on him to pick the best person for the job."

"That sounds like a great idea," Mokuba agreed. "I don't think he could make a worse choice than you always do anyway."

"So, have you got much homework left to do?" Seto asked as he gave his brother a sharp look for his previous remark, true though it may be.

"I'm nearly done." Mokuba replied with some relief.

"Good." The older boy said. "I'll check it later on. I need to go and find something for Jonouchi to wear and I need to go and fetch his clothes for laundering before Mrs Doyle goes in to find them."

Mokuba stifled a snigger, "Did she offer to bathe him?" he asked in amusement, then held his hand up. "Don't answer that, I can guess. I hope he wasn't too traumatised." Mokuba couldn't help but giggle.

"Quite," Seto nodded. "I'll see you downstairs for dinner in about an hour, Mokuba," he said, "so make sure that you don't fill up with snacks." Once Mokuba nodded, he left the room.

After Seto had left the room, Mokuba put his homework to one side and reached into a drawer in his desk. He pulled out his digital camera and made sure it was fully charged and ready to go, smiling as everything checked out.

After he had taken the picture of Jonouchi and Seto shaking hands a few weeks previously he'd wanted to catch them interacting again. In the intervening time he'd seen a few looks from both of them that made it quite plain that they felt something for each other and he was sure that now Jonouchi was staying overnight that he might catch them glancing at each other at the very least. Of course, if he could get something more then it could be good blackmail material for the future. He smirked as he put the camera to one side on the desk, then went back to finish his homework. This promised to be fun.

xo xo xo xo xo xo xo

Seto opened the door to Jou's room and peeked inside before stepping through the doorway. He couldn't see any sign of Jou's clothes so he assumed that Jou had got them in the bathroom with him. He stepped over and knocked on the door. "Jou, did you forget to leave your clothes out here?" he asked.

"Dammit!" Jou exclaimed, "I completely forgot. Sorry."

"Will it be OK if I step inside and get them? Mrs Doyle will likely come looking for them before too long if I don't."

"Shit!" Jou swore. "It's OK to come in I guess."

Having gained permission, Seto opened the door and stepped inside. The room was humid from the heat of the water and Jou was sat quite stiffly in the bath. His modesty was saved by the water being cloudy from the bath salts that Seto had stirred in earlier. Seto stepped across to retrieve the clothes from the floor, but stopped half way. "Are you feeling better?" he asked.

"Yeah, I'm great," Jou replied. "This stuff is amazing. I really do feel a lot better, thanks."

Seto wasn't convinced. "I wondering about that because you seem to be sitting rather stiffly." His scepticism was evident in his tone.

"Eh? I hadn't really noticed," Jou evaded. He was kind of embarrassed that he was quite naked under the water, but he didn't want to let Kaiba know that.

"Well take it from me, you are," Seto observed, "and you won't do yourself any good if you don't relax." He paused. "I could help you with that if you like?"

"What... what do you mean?" Jou looked at Seto, clearly flustered.

"Don't worry, it's nothing out of the ordinary, just a bit of a shoulder massage and backrub." Seto said as he moved behind Jou and rolled his sleeves up a bit. "It really will help you to relax I promise."

Jou didn't seem to be totally convinced, but he nodded his consent for Seto to continue anyway. However, he couldn't contain a satisfied groan as Seto began to work on his tense shoulders and neck. "You have magic hands, Kaiba," he breathed as he finally relaxed.

"Thank you Puppy," Seto said softly, his breath ghosting over Jonouchi's ear. Jou shivered at the feeling and suddenly a certain part of his anatomy definitely wasn't so relaxed any more and he was very grateful for the cloudiness of the water.

After a moment longer Seto stopped and pulled away from the bathing blond, causing Jou to sigh with slight disappointment. Then Seto bent to pick up the discarded clothes, giving Jou a close up view of his pert behind in the process, something he couldn't help but stare at.

Seto stood, still facing away from Jou. "I'll take these now," he said shortly. "I still need to find you something to wear, but I should only be a few more minutes with that. Dinner will be served in about three quarters of an hour, so don't stay in there for too long."

"I won't, thanks Kaiba," Jou watched as Seto walked out of the room more rather more stiffly than he'd walked in. He couldn't help but notice that Kaiba had kept his back to him after that back-rub and he couldn't help but wonder if Kaiba wasn't as unaffected as he tried to make himself out to be.

xo xo xo xo xo xo xo

Seto, Meanwhile, having un-tucked his shirt from his trousers in an attempt to hide his own not so small problem, had taken Jou's sizes from his clothing but had so far failed to turn up much that would fit the smaller teen. In the end he settled for a pair of sweatpants and a T-shirt, knowing that Jou wouldn't mind too much what he was wearing, within reason, as long as he was clothed. He also picked up a new pair of boxers and headed back to the guest room. Once there he laid the clothes out on the bed, ready for Jou to wear. He was about to call out to Jou to let him know when he heard a low moan from the bathroom.

Seto froze. Was his puppy really in that much pain? Why was he hiding it before? Seto was about to knock on the door and ask Jou if he really was OK when there came a gasp and a more distinctive groan of pleasure. Carefully, so as not to alert the bathing teen, Seto cracked the door open and peeked inside. He had to stifle his own gasp at the sight that greeted him. Jou was relaxing in the bath, head thrown back and face flushed while his right arm was making an unmistakeable motion beneath the water. Seto shifted uncomfortably as his trousers once again became almost unbearably tight.

He was about to close the door and leave, unwilling to disturb Jou's private moment, but even as the thought crossed his mind Jou arched his whole body and groaned Seto's name as he reached his release. With his face burning and being more turned on than he'd ever been before in his life, Seto quietly closed the door and hurriedly left the room.

Jou lay in the bath for a few moments more, utterly spent after what had been one of the more intense orgasms he'd ever experienced. If it was this good after Kaiba had only touched his shoulders and breathed into his ear then how would it be... Jou quickly stopped that train of thought. It wouldn't do him any good to get all worked up again so quickly. Besides, there had something odd going on between them when it came the very few intimate encounters they'd had and he had yet to get his head around it. He really did not want to make a misstep and ruin things before they even started.

With a sigh of regret he put that musing aside, stood and got out of the bath, pulling the plug as he did so. He quickly jumped into the shower to rinse off, then towelled himself dry and walked out into the bedroom wearing nothing but a towel around his waist. He stopped short at the sight of the clothes laid out on the bed ready for him. He hadn't heard Kaiba come back and surely he would have called out to let him know about the clothes, unless...

Jou flushed at the thought that Kaiba might have heard what he was up to in the bathroom. It wasn't something he would normally do when he was a guest in someone else's home, but he just hadn't been able to help himself. After Kaiba had given him that relaxing back-rub and then breathed into his ear he had been afflicted with a problem that had refused to go away even after several minutes of trying to think of un-sexy things. He'd even gone so far as to imagine that Mrs Doyle had come in to bathe him, but when after a moment that imagery changed to Kaiba running his hands all over his body, he knew he would have to give it up and just deal with it. To think that Kaiba may have heard him was quite embarrassing, but then again, there was no saying that he had.

Jou decided to put it out of his mind for now as worrying about it wouldn't help anything. He got dressed and exited the room, then knocked on Seto's door.

"Come in," Seto's distinctive voice drifted through the wood. Jou didn't miss that there was a hint of strain in his tone.

However, Jou didn't hesitate and entered the room. "Hey Kaiba," he said.

Seto looked up "I see that the clothes fit you adequately. I'm sorry, but I didn't really have anything else for you."

Jou shrugged, "They're fine," he smiled, "and it's gotta be better than hanging around in a towel all evening."

"Oh, I don't know about that," Seto said lowly, a slight flush upon his face.

Jou almost gasped at Seto's tone, then shook his head and walked over to where the older boy was continuing to work on his laptop. " So what'cha doin' Kaiba?" he asked as he leaned over the other boy's shoulder.

"I'm just catching up on some work that I would have finished earlier if things hadn't turned out like they did," Seto said, then he glanced at Jonouchi. "And by the way," he said, "I'm going to have you select my new secretary for me."

Jou stood up straight, taken aback for a moment. "That's quite a responsibility you're giving me there, Kaiba."

"It's all part of being my personal assistant," Seto replied, spinning his chair around so that he was facing Jonouchi.

Jou smiled. "Yeah, I gathered that and I'm up for it!" Jonouchi exclaimed. "I take it that you will have final say in the matter though?"

"No, Jonouchi," Seto replied, "it's all up to you. I trust that you will make a good decision, after all I'm not the only one that will have to work with them."

"OK Kaiba," Jou replied seriously, "I won't let you down."

"I know you won't, pup." Seto looked up at Jou and his breath caught at the intensity of the other's gaze. He unconsciously widened his legs and leaned back in invitation and that invitation was rewarded as Jou stepped forwards and deliberately planted his lips on Seto's.

Seto was both in heaven and in hell. In heaven because it felt so damned good, and in hell because he was having a hard time not coming in his pants right there. To be 'dominated' by Jou was one of the biggest turn-ons ever and he moaned wantonly into Jou's mouth as the other boy deepened the kiss. He was so hard right now... unconsciously he shifted and rubbed himself against Jou's taut body as the blond moved to suck on the tender skin of his neck. However, his undoing came as Jonouchi groaned 'Mmm, Seto' into his ear. Seto bucked up sharply and cried out as he released. It took a moment for him to come back to himself, and when he did it was to find a pair of brown eyes regarding him worriedly.

"Kaiba, are you alright?" Jou asked contritely, "I didn't mean..."

"I'm fine, Jou." Seto cut him off. "More than fine actually, although perhaps a little sticky." He grimaced in distaste.

"I'm sorry..." Jou started apologising again, but he was once again interrupted by Kaiba.

"Don't be," the brunet said, "Really it was my own stubbornness that caused it."

"What do you mean?" Jou asked.

"Well," Seto was blushing a little now, "I first became... aroused... when I gave you that massage, but I stubbornly decided to ignore it. Then when I brought the clothes to your room..."

"You... you heard me?" It was Jou's turn to blush.

Kaiba also blushed. "I didn't just hear you, I saw you too. I'm sorry, I couldn't resist peeking into the bathroom once I realised that you weren't groaning in pain." He looked up into Jou's eyes, "That has to count as the most erotic things I have ever seen."

"Ah, thanks, I guess." Jou scratched the back of his head in embarrassment. He really wasn't sure what to say to that.

"As I was saying," Seto continued, "I carried on ignoring my... problem… even after that. I tried to distract myself with work, but to no avail. I just couldn't concentrate at all as all I could think about was the sight of you in the bath. I was just about to go to the bathroom to... deal with the problem when you knocked on the door. You know the rest."

"Ah, I'm..."

"Jonouchi, please don't apologise again. I told you that it's alright and I meant it." He grimaced again at the wet feeling in his pants. "I'll just need to go and freshen up a bit is all."

"Before you do that, will it be OK if I call Yugi?" Jou asked, "I need to let someone know where I am or they might think I've been kidnapped." He smiled as he said that, as if it were a big joke.

"That will be fine. You can use the phone in your room." Seto then stood up and pulled Jonouchi into a gentle kiss, full of feeling. "After that you can head downstairs. I'm sure that Mokuba will be along soon."

"Alright Kaiba," Jou said as he kissed Kaiba again, then stepped back as he turned to leave the room. "See you shortly."

"Seto, Jou," Kaiba called after him. "Call me Seto."

"OK Seto." Jou turned back to him and smiled. "You can call me Katsuya if you like."

"Are you sure?" Seto asked, "If you aren't comfortable with it..."

"No, it's fine." Jou said, "But only when we are alone, you know?"

"I understand, Katsuya," Seto tried out saying Jou's name. It felt weird and he knew that he'd still call him Jou most of the time, but it was nice that he'd been permission, especially as Jou had made it clear that he wasn't too keen on his name.

Jou smiled. "It's not so bad coming from you," he said. "Right then, I'd better make that call and leave you to get, err, cleaned up. We'll have time to talk later though won't we?"

"Yes pup, now be off with you," Kaiba shooed Jonouchi away as he headed towards the bathroom. Things were beginning to move quickly now and once Jonouchi finally figured out just what it was that Kaiba wanted, he knew that he was going to be in for the ride of his life.

xo xo xo xo xo xo xo

**A/N** - This chapter feels... odd - although it may be just because I've looked at it _so much._ I may come back to it later, but for now it's time to move on.

Thank you for reading. I try to reply to all reviews, but my alerts revert to disabled fairly often so I might not see it straight away.


	5. Chapter 5

**Disclaimer:** I do not own YuGiOh!. That pleasure belongs to Kazuki Takahashi. I also do not own Father Ted. That belongs to Hat Trick and Channel 4. This is solely written for fun and not for profit.

xo xo xo xo xo xo xo

After making his phone call, during which Yugi had asked lots of questions that Jou had refused to answer, Jou walked down the stairs. He'd had to promise to explain things to Yugi the next time that they met, which wasn't such a bad thing as he knew that he would have to talk to somebody eventually and he knew that Yugi was probably the most level headed and trustworthy out of his group of friends.

Putting it out of his mind for the moment, he looked around to see if Mokuba had come down yet, but shortly came to the conclusion that the younger Kaiba wasn't around. He was about to head into the lounge to watch some television while he waited for Seto when he ran into Mrs. Doyle.

"Ah, there you are Master Katsuya," She said, "Now would you like a nice cup of tea?"

"Not right now thank you Mrs. Doyle" Jonouchi replied absently.

"Ah, go on," she insisted, "I just made a fresh pot."

From past experience, Jou knew that she would just keep on asking until he gave in, so he accepted gracefully, "Alright then, I will have one." He followed her into the lounge where everything was already set up on the coffee table. He sat on one of the expansive sofas as Mrs Doyle poured him a nice cup of tea.

She was about to walk away when Jou stopped her. "Would you join me Mrs Doyle?" he asked.

She looked torn, "I shouldn't really..."

"Ah, go on," Jou said, using her words against her, "it'll be fine."

"OK so, I suppose that can spare a few minutes," she said as she sat down opposite Jou uneasily and poured herself a cup.

"So," Jonouchi broke the silence, "Do you like working for Kaiba?"

"Well, it's different to what I was used to before," she said hesitantly, "but I've been here for so long now that I'm pretty much used to it."

"Do you miss the people you worked for before?"

"Ah, Fathers Crilly, Macguire and Hackett," she paused for a moment in reminiscence, "I suppose I do really. But a deal is a deal," she said stoically.

"So Kaiba's adoptive father really won you in a card game?"

"Well, it wasn't really like that," she said uncomfortably, "I only have to stay here until Father Crilly pays off his debt. I'm sure it won't be much longer now." She sounded rather unconvinced.

"So you really kept house for three priests?" Jou couldn't help but smirk as he changed the subject slightly. "There's a funny coincidence there."

"What on earth do you mean Master Katsuya," Mrs Doyle was confused, "There aren't any priests living here that I know of."

"Well, that's not strictly true," Jonouchi leaned forwards conspiratorially. "In his past life, Kaiba was an ancient Egyptian priest. He doesn't like to talk about it though."

"You are having me on!" the housekeeper declared.

"No, seriously," Jonouchi insisted, knowing that the woman would not take him seriously at all. "Have you ever seen my friend Yugi? The short one with the impossible hair?"

"Oh yes. He plays that card game that you children are all so fond of."

"Well, he is the reincarnation of the Pharaoh from that time. No joke. I also have another friend called Ryou. He's the reincarnation of an evil tomb-robber, but Ryou is so gentle that you'd never know it. There is a long story behind the whole thing, but it would take far too long to tell."

"So, did you have a past life too?" Mrs Doyle couldn't help but be intrigued by Jonouchi's imaginative story, despite not believing a word.

"Actually I don't know," Jonouchi admitted, "I can't remember anything myself and Yugi would never tell me when I asked him. But I trust him and I know that if there is something to tell, he will tell me when the time is right."

"I'm glad that you have such good friends," Mrs Doyle said wistfully. "It's also good to see young Master Seto associating with those closer to his own age."

"Mrs Doyle, can I ask you something?"

"Yes Master Katsuya?"

"Why is it that you call everyone by their given names? I noticed that you called the priests by their family names, so I was wondering."

"I'm not sure I understand." The housekeeper said in some confusion.

"Did no one ever explain to you about the difference between Japanese and western names?" Jou asked in astonishment.

"There's a difference?" Mrs Doyle was beginning to look flustered.

"Yes. Westerners have the family name last, where as in Japan we have the family name first. If I were to go to your country I would give my name as Katsuya Jonouchi."

"Oh! I had no idea, I am so sorry." Mrs Doyle was so embarrassed, "I know that Master S… err, Kaiba asked me to call him by his family name so many times, but I thought I already was. Oh will he ever forgive me?"

"please don't worry abotu it," Jonouchi tried to calm the distraught woman. "It's more his fault than yours anyway. He should have explained things more clearly." Jou wondered that Mokuba hadn't said anything, but then he supposed that Mokuba didn't care if she called him by his given name and he probably enjoyed watching his brother get frustrated by the whole thing.

"I always did wonder why both he and Young Master Kaiba had the same first name but different last names," Mrs Doyle pondered. "I never could ask because I thought it might be some kind of family scandal."

Jonouchi laughed out loud at that, then added, "It'll probably still be OK to call Mokuba by his given name. It might get a little confusing otherwise." He sobered a little. "Do you miss your friends and family?" he asked.

"Well, I do miss my friends a little, but we keep in touch via letter. It's always a thrill when there is a letter for me in the mornings." She tried to put a brave face on things, "As for family, Mr Doyle... passed away quite some time ago."

"I'm sorry to hear that," Jou replied. "You must be quite lonely. I don't think many of the staff here speak English do they?"

"Oh, its not so bad," she said, "When I really want to talk to someone I can talk to the boy that lives inside the television."

"Boy in the television?" Jou asked in surprise. There was only one person that he knew of that would live inside a 'television', but he'd thought that Noa was gone. "Is he about so high with greenish hair?" Jou asked.

Mrs Doyle suddenly looked nervous. "Oh no. I promised that I wouldn't tell Master Kaiba about him. He's frightened that he'll get rid of him." She turned watery eyes onto Jonouchi. "Please don't tell Master Kaiba about him."

Jonouchi considered his options for a moment. "I can't promise anything, but I'd like to talk to him for myself before I come to a decision." Jou figured that was the best option for now. If Noa turned out to be a threat he could advise Seto and take steps, but otherwise, why take away the only companionship of a lonely old woman far away from home?

"Thank you Master Jonouchi, that's all I can ask for," she said with genuine gratitude. She looked at her watch. "Oh my! It's almost time for dinner. I must get on so please excuse me." With that she got up and left to get on with her work.

Jou sat back and drank his tea. Mrs Doyle had certainly given him something to think about. That Noa was apparently back and living under Seto's nose without his apparent knowledge was no small thing, but he hadn't caused any trouble that he knew of so that was one point in Noa's favour anyway. Putting it out of his mind for now as there was nothing more that he could do until he'd actually talked to Noa, he decided to ask if he could bring Ryou over one day as he was sure that the old housekeeper would appreciate talking to someone who was from somewhere a little closer to home.

He was brought out of his musings as Mokuba entered the room. "Hey Jonouchi" He greeted then stopped in shock as Jonouchi turned towards him. "Holy shit! Seto wasn't joking when he said you were beat up. Are you sure you're alright?"

"I'm fine squirt, honestly," Jou reassured the younger boy, "I've had much worse. And don't let Seto hear you talking like that!"

"Meh, Big Brother uses far worse words than that!" Mokuba exclaimed, throwing himself down on the sofa next to Jou. "Talking of which, where is he? He's going to be late for dinner if he doesn't hurry up."

Jou flushed as he remembered the reason that Seto was delayed. "He... ah... had to go freshen up a bit. I'm sure he won't be much longer."

Mokuba noticed Jou's embarrassment and he also noticed how he'd called Seto by his given name earlier. He smiled inwardly, it was about bloody time! He fingered the camera in his pocket absently hoping that he would have the opportunity to use it soon. He was sure that Seto would appreciate a picture of himself and Jonouchi to place on his bedside table at least. Then he could turn to getting more embarrassing pictures of the pair for blackmail purposes later on. He gave an evil little grin at the fun he was going to have.

Jou was giving the raven haired boy a worried look. Whenever the squirt got a look like that on his face it usually meant trouble for someone or other. He couldn't worry over it for too much longer as Seto finally arrived.

"Jonouchi, Mokuba," he greeted them. He turned to Mokuba, "Did you finish your homework?"

"Yes, big brother. All done." Mokuba replied.

"Good. I'll check it over later on."

"OK Seto," Mokuba looked shifty for a moment. "Seto?"

"Yes Mokuba?"

The boy's eyes flickered between Seto and Jou, "Is there anything that you need to tell me?"

Jou went pink and to a lesser extent, so did Seto. Both were thinking how Mokuba could be more perceptive than was good for him. However they were saved from answering because Mrs Doyle called them in to dinner.

Once seated, dinner was a quiet affair. Jou didn't speak because he didn't want to tread on Seto's toes over what he wanted to tell his brother and he was sure that if he opened his mouth he would give something away. Mokuba didn't want to say anything because he was having too much fun watching the embarrassment of the older boys. Seto was just wondering how to phrase the response to Mokuba's enquiry and he wished that he'd taken the time to discuss it with Jonouchi earlier on.

Mrs Doyle came in to make sure that everything was alright and she was astounded at the silence in the room. "Well, it's all very morose in here," She observed chirpily. "Anyone would think that someone had died."

"It's nothing like that, Mrs Doyle," Mokuba piped up, "I'm just waiting for Seto and Jonouchi to fill me in about their relationship."

"Ah yes, it's so nice to see Master Kaiba with a friend his own age," she twittered on as she refilled their glasses. "Now get on and eat. The food is getting cold while you all sit there not talking." With that she walked out.

"Totally clueless," Mokuba muttered as he watched her retreat.

Seto, however, was sat in a state of shock. "She actually called me Kaiba," he said incredulously, "Why does she suddenly get it now?"

"I explained it to her," Jou said. "You always asked her to call you by your family name, but you neglected to tell her that Japanese names are the opposite way around to what she's used to." Jou chuckled, "She was actually quite confused about you two sharing the same first name and different family names but she was too polite to ask about what may have been some kind of scandal."

Seto face-palmed. It was so simple! For all that he was supposed to be a genius...

"So big brother, Jonouchi," Mokuba broke in before either one could ask why he had never said anything, "is there something going on that I should know about?"

Seto gave Jou a sidelong look. Jou looked back with an expression that clearly said 'it's up to you.' Seto thought for a moment longer before saying, "I'll discuss it with you properly later, but yes, there is something going on between Jou and myself although it is at a very early stage"

"Oh good. I'm glad," Mokuba smiled and both Jou and Seto visibly relaxed until he spoke again. "So you haven't had sex yet then?"

"Mokuba!"

xo xo xo xo xo xo xo

After dinner, Seto excused himself and Jonouchi and the two boys went to Seto's room. Seto sat at his desk and booted his computer while Jou, who was feeling exhausted after the events of the day, flopped onto Seto's bed with a small wince.

"I didn't think I'd get you into my bed so quickly, pup," Seto quipped as he pulled up some files on his computer.

"Ha ha Seto," Jou replied with more than a hint of fatigue clouding his voice. "I'm not that easy you know."

"I never implied that you were." Seto said.

"Mmm…"

"Katsuya?" Seto enquired,

"'M sorry Seto. I'm just so tired."

Seto felt guilty. He had forgotten that his puppy had had a very trying day. "I'm sorry Jou. I should have realised."

Jou made a move to get up. "I should go back to the guest room before I fall asleep," he said as he sat up with obvious exhaustion.

Seto got up and moved across to the bed. He put his hand on Jou's shoulder and pushed him back down. "No, it's OK. You can stay here. I'll just go and check on Mokuba's homework." With that he left the exhausted teen to sleep.

Half an hour later Seto returned to his room after checking that Mokuba's homework was completed to his satisfaction and after having quite an embarrassing conversation with the younger boy. He was unsurprised to find that Jonouchi was quite fast asleep in his bed. Leaving Jou to slumber, he went to do some work on his computer, but seeing Jou lying there so innocently was quite a distraction and eventually Seto could not resist. He closed his computer then climbed onto the bed beside Jou, pulled the comforter up and cuddled close to him. He had only intended to stay there for a few minutes, but shortly he also drifted off to sleep.

xo xo xo xo xo xo xo

The next morning, Seto awoke to find himself wrapped in the embrace of the blond haired boy he'd shared his bed with the previous night. He attempted to move and rise from the bed only to find himself pulled back down and snuggled. He really would have been content to lay there for a while longer, but he had a pressing need to attend to.

"Jonouchi!" he tried to rouse the other teen without success. "Katsuya!" he tried again.

"Mmfff, ten more minutes," Jou mumbled as he snuggled into Seto.

"Puppy!" Seto exclaimed, a note of strain in his voice, "if you don't let me up soon you'll end up lying in a wet bed!"

Slowly that thought filtered through Jou's sleep-fogged brain and he let Seto go. "Sorry. It can take me quite a while to get going in the morning."

"Yes, I noticed," Seto said as he leaned in and gave Jou a quick kiss. He got up and made a bee-line for the bathroom. Once he was done in there he came back to find that Jonouchi had turned over and gone back to sleep. He chuckled at the cute picture his puppy made and decided that he could let him have another half hour of sleep while he checked his emails.

It wasn't to be half an hour later before Seto felt a presence behind him. Jou draped himself over Seto's shoulder and kissed him on the cheek.

"Good morning sleepyhead," Seto said with amusement as he reached up and mussed Jou's hair affectionately, "Do you feel better this morning?"

"Yeah," Jou said as he stood up straight again and yawned widely. "A good night's sleep does the world of good, although I am still a bit stiff and sore. So what's the plan for today?"

"Well, first, obviously, is breakfast," Seto chuckled as Jonouchi's stomach growled on cue, "then we'll be heading in to the office. You can clear Keiko's desk and arrange for any of her personal effects to be sent on then I'd like you to start looking into likely candidates to be my new secretary. I have plenty to be getting on with in the office so you'll probably be on your own for most of the time."

"OK Seto," Jou replied, "I'll also make sure to go through her desk very carefully. I always thought there was something a little off about her and I'm a bit worried that there was more to what happened yesterday than there appeared to be on the surface." He shrugged, "It's better to be safe than sorry anyway."

"I agree with you," Seto said, "but I'm glad you mentioned it." He looked at the clock. "Now go and get yourself washed and dressed. Breakfast will be served soon and I don't want you to be hungry today."

"As long as you eat properly too," Jou shot back as he made to leave the room. "You're even bitchier than normal when you're hungry."

Seto didn't answer, but simply shook his head and turned back to his work.

xo xo xo xo xo xo xo

Once at the office, Jonouchi had spent the morning going through Keiko's desk and had amassed quite a pile of personal effects. However, in amongst the pile of make up and feminine hygiene products there were a couple of items of interest. One was Keiko's cellphone, which was out of power. Another was a small paper notebook full of information that he thought could potentially be damaging to Kaiba Corporation in the wrong hands. Finally, right at the back of one of the drawers, there was a folder with several employee records inside, none of whom Jou recognised at all. along with information on Jonouchi himself. He cleared all the useless stuff into a box then walked into Kaiba's office with the rest.

"Hey Seto," Jou said as he walked into Kaiba's office, "I think I found something. Well, several somethings actually."

"Really?" Seto sounded surprised despite himself. "She must have been quite the amateur then. What did you find?"

"First off I found this notebook in the top drawer." Jou handed it to Seto who started to read. "I'm guessing that she kept it in the drawer as it may have seemed a little odd to keep pulling a book like that out of her handbag, whereas removing a book from a drawer and taking notes would not look out of the ordinary."

"Hmm," Seto mused as he continued to read. "Most of the information in here is not really sensitive, but it is concerning that she was keeping notes on it at all. It does make more sense of why she kept on pushing for more responsibility, but I had hoped that finally finding a personal assistant would make her give up."

"That isn't the only thing," Jou said as he handed over the folder full of copies of employee records. "I found this right at the back of the filing drawer. I don't recognise any of the people in that file, but she also had a fair bit of information on me in there which explains how she knew about my past and academic record."

Seto looked through the folder, flipping from record to record. He looked a bit shocked. "Well, it's no wonder you don't know these people," Seto said, "They all ceased employment before you started here." He flipped through again, "In fact if I recall correctly, the one thing they have in common is that Keiko took over their jobs when they left or were fired. I'm surprised that she didn't remove or shred the evidence, which just goes to show what an amateur she was."

"So I guess she was looking to do the same thing to me?" Jou asked.

"Not that it would have worked, Pup," Seto was quick to reassure, "I doubt that there is anything she could have brought to me that would cause me to doubt you and I'm sure you would have a reasonable explanation for anything that might."

"Thank you, Seto," Jou said. "That really means a lot. There is one more thing that will need to be looked at before I have Keiko's stuff forwarded to her." As Seto raised an eyebrow in enquiry, Jou placed the cell phone on his desk. "The battery is dead and it'll have to be plugged in before we can check the records, but one of the security guys said that there was a report of a sound like a phone ringtone constantly coming from the outer office last night. It would make sense that she would try and run the battery down by continually calling the phone if she thought that there was anything sensitive on it."

"You are getting almost as paranoid as me," Seto said in amusement, "and I'm not sure if that's a good thing or a bad thing. Of course, with her being put out of the picture and with you being my personal assistant..." Seto tailed off and looked at Jou speculatively.

"What are you getting at Seto?" Jou asked. He didn't like that look.

Seto shrugged, "With Keiko gone and assuming that she was reporting to someone, I wouldn't be surprised if that someone were to feel you out to see if you would be amenable to... selling information."

"You really think so?" Jou said in surprise. "You do know that I'd never do that to you, don't you?"

"I do know that," Seto said soothingly, "but if it does happen, maybe we could use it to our advantage, to spread misinformation."

"I... I don't know," Jonouchi said, frowning slightly. "You know that I don't like to lie."

Seto held up his hands, "I won't force you to do it if you don't want to," he reassured, "but bear in mind that this person, if they exist, would not hesitate to destroy me – or you if you get in the way." He looked into Jou's eyes with all the sincerity he could muster. "Just consider it, OK?"

"Alright Seto," Jou said reluctantly, "I'll consider it."

"I can't ask any more of you than that," Seto said, "Now would you come over here for a moment please?"

Jou complied but looked at Seto quizzically, "What for?" he asked as Seto spun his chair so he was facing the blond.

Seto looked up directly into Jou's eyes. "So that I can do this..." With that he reached up and pulled Jonouchi down into a bruising kiss. As soon as Jou had realised what was happening and had instinctively taken control, Seto surrendered willingly. They kissed for several long minutes, tongues caressing each other in a sensual dance before Jou pulled away and looked at Seto in such a predatory way that it took his breath away. Seto let out a low moan as Jou leaned forward and began to suck on one of his sensitive earlobes before slowly kissing his way down Seto's neck.

The atmosphere was getting heated. Clothes were loosening, hands were roving and things would have gone a lot further had Mokuba not made his presence known with a discreet cough.

"You know, this probably isn't the best place to do that kind of thing," the black haired boy said with a smirk on his face as Jou suddenly launched himself away from Seto. Jou had an utterly horrified look on his face that changed to one of pain as he landed hard on his behind. "Why, anyone could just walk in." Mokuba had an innocent look on his face that was totally fake.

"Point made, Mokuba," Seto said ruefully as he straightened himself out, smoothing his rumpled clothes. "So what brings you here? I thought you had plans for today."

"Oh, I do, but that's not until later on," Mokuba replied, smirking slightly as Jou picked himself up off the floor and rubbed at his sore behind. "I just wanted to see how things were going."

"They were going just fine until you interrupted," Jou grumbled before Seto could answer. "Haven't you ever heard of knocking?"

"But if I knocked how would I manage to take such delicious incriminating photographs?" the imp said as he waved the camera in front of the two older teens. "Don't worry your secrets are safe with me." He backed slowly towards the door, "On second thought, fill me in on what happened later, I really need to go now!" With that he dashed out of the door as Seto and Jou both launched themselves after him. Unfortunately, by the time they made it to the outer office, Mokuba was already in the lift and was waving to them as the doors closed.

"Damn, he got away." Jou exclaimed as Mokuba was finally out of sight.

Seto shrugged, "There's no help for it now, but I will speak with him over this later on."

"But what if those pictures get out, Seto?" Jou was obviously agitated.

"Jou calm down. Do you really think that Mokuba would let anything like that happen? He knows how to keep secrets."

"Sorry Seto," Jou said contritely, "You are right of course. It's just that..."

"I do understand," Seto said as he placed a calming hand on Jou's shoulder. "Still it does drive the point home that we should not be doing that kind of thing here. There is too much risk."

"Sorry Seto," Jou said again.

"Nonsense. That was my fault. You have been so restrained, not even putting a hand on me until I pulled you into that kiss." He paused and took a deep breath, "And we still have quite a bit to do, but its lunchtime so how about we step out for a bite to eat?"

"You're on!" Jou exclaimed as the promise of food had driven the previous drama from his mind. "But instead of going out, could we order something in? I don't want rumours that you beat your personal assistant to get around." He gestured towards the scratches on his face and his black eye to illustrate his point.

Seto smacked himself on the forehead. "Sorry Jou. I completely forgot about that. We should have used some concealer on it or something."

"No worries," Jou replied, "I should have remembered myself but I think I've been a little distracted lately." He smirked at Seto, letting the CEO know exactly what the distraction was and Seto smirked in return as he led Jou back into his office and called for takeout.

xo xo xo xo xo xo xo

The afternoon was spent quite productively. Seto went back through Keiko's employee records to see exactly what she had been up to while in his employ as Jou busied himself searching out potential candidates within the company for the secretary's job. Soon, Seto had mapped out Keiko's trail through his company and it showed a typical sleep, blackmail and sabotage her way to the top kind of profile. Seto resolved to find out what the human resources department had been up to as this type of behaviour should have raised several flags.

A charger had also been found for the cellphone and there were plenty of sensitive text messages sent to one particular number, although neither Jou or Seto knew who it belonged to. Kaiba had not been able to turn up a contact address for the number through any of the means that were currently at his disposal, soon coming to the conclusion that it must have been a prepaid model purchased just for this purpose. He also elected not to call the number as to do so may tip off whoever it belonged to that they had been rumbled, although he did keep that as an option for the future.

Time passed quickly and soon it was time for them to go home for the evening.

"Are you sure you don't want to stay over again?" Seto asked as the limo pulled away from Kaiba Corporation, "I can't help but worry that..."

Jou raised one finger to Seto's lips. At the contact, the brunet shut up completely. "Seto, I appreciate that you'll worry, I really do, but I have to go home. If I'm not there when I should be then there could be more trouble, but even if my dad is there he's likely to be so far out of it that he'll be no problem and hopefully he'll kill enough brain cells that he'll have forgotten that press conference ever happened."

"If you are sure..." Seto wasn't convinced.

"Seto, I am sure." Jou said with a conviction that he didn't really feel. "And before you say it, yes, I promise to call you if I need to."

"I guess that's all I can ask," Seto said in resignation as the limo began to approach the more seedy side of town.

"Could you stop the car here please?" Jou said suddenly. Seto looked confused but complied and told the driver to stop anyway. "I'll walk from here," the blond continued, "Seriously, it wouldn't do for me to be seen getting out of your limo in my neighbourhood."

"But... could you be targeted because you work for me now?"

"I can take care of myself, really," Jou reassured the other boy.

"Alright then." Before Jou could get out, Seto pulled him back for one last kiss. "If you change your mind, you are more than welcome to come over."

Jou flushed red at the invitation and was thankful that the lighting inside the limo was quite dim. "I'll bear that in mind. Are you sure that I'm not needed at work tomorrow?"

"I'm sure," Seto replied, "I may pop into Kaiba land sometime in the afternoon, but you shouldn't need to be there."

"Good. I'm planning to head out with Yugi and the gang tomorrow. It's been a while and I think Anzu is convinced that you've brainwashed me or something."

"Well, it's definitely the 'or something'," Seto smirked. "But I will do my best not to need you tomorrow."

"Why don't you join us?" Jou asked, "I know for a fact that Yugi won't mind."

"I'm sorry Jou," Seto said with genuine regret, "Although I can tolerate some of the group there are one or two of them that I just _cannot _co-exist with."

"Yeah, I getcha," Jou said, thinking in particular about a certain raven haired dice freak, "but the offer still stands if you change your mind."

"Alright Pup," Seto said, "now you'd best get going. We've been sitting here for a while and I don't want to get a ticket."

"See you in school on Monday then," Jou said as he finally exited the limo. He shut the door and watched longingly as the vehicle pulled away and out of sight, then pulled himself together, broke into a jog and was soon home. Carefully, he opened the door and crept inside, thanking goodness that his dad wasn't home and he'd managed to dodge that bullet. He quickly made his way to his room and locked the door, the usual mantra of 'only a little longer' rolling through his head. His 18th birthday couldn't come soon enough!

xo xo xo xo xo xo xo

This one took longer than I expected because I didn't have as much chance to work on it as I'd hoped. I've also tried not to get quite so bogged down in the minutiae of the chapter this time as I think it takes a lot of the fun out of the editing process if I end up looking it over the chapters _too_ much. I was also trying to keep the length of the chapters down, but this was leading to some odd stopping points so I'll just cut where it seems best in future.

Thank you for reading.


	6. Chapter 6

**Disclaimer:** I do not own YuGiOh!. That pleasure belongs to Kazuki Takahashi. I also do not own Father Ted. That belongs to Hat Trick and Channel 4. This is solely written for fun and not for profit.

Also, I just want to reiterate that this story is rated **M**. This means, according to the ratings system used on this site, that it is intended for those over **16** years of age.

xo xo xo xo xo xo xo

The next day found Jou bright and early at the Kame Game Shop. As far as he could tell his dad had not been home overnight but that was not really a surprise as the man had taken enough money to keep him in drink for several days at least.

He did kind of regret not taking Seto up on his offer of staying overnight, but he knew that if he had agreed then things would have inevitably gone a lot further than they had in the office and he wasn't sure he was ready to go that far just yet, especially as he seemed to be getting mixed signals from Seto. Apart from anything else, even if he were reading things the right way, he was completely inexperienced and he didn't want to ruin the experience by hurting Seto. Of course they didn't actually have to go as far as having penetrative sex, but he knew that things could go anywhere in the heat of the moment.

Jou shook his head to put these thoughts out of his mind for now. He was here to relax and have fun with his friends and thinking about these problems would only stress him out. Finally he pulled himself together and knocked on the door.

"Jonouchi!" Yugi's cheery face appeared at the door. "It's good to see you." He ushered the taller boy inside. "I was beginning to think that Kaiba was going to work you to death!"

"Now, now Yug'," Jou protested, "It's not like that."

"I know, I'm only kidding," the shorter boy replied. "You are the first one here you know. If nothing else, working for Kaiba has been good for your punctuality." He smiled to take any sting out of his words.

"I'm glad we're alone," Jou said. He looked a little troubled as he sat at the kitchen counter, "'cos I need to talk to you about something."

Yugi sat next to Jou. "You know you can tell me anything," he said gently. "Does it have to do with the marks on your face?"

Jou looked shocked. "Shit! You can see them? I thought I covered them up."

"It's alright Jou. You've done a good job of it and I doubt that the others will notice. You know that I won't say anything."

"Thanks Yug, I appreciate that. And it doesn't really have anything to do with that although the events that caused them did start things off." He paused and took a deep breath. "What would you say if I told you that I'd started seeing someone?"

"Well I'd say that was a good thing," Yugi replied, "Everyone deserves to have someone special in their lives."

"OK, that's good," Jou said, "but what if I were to tell you it was another guy?"

Yugi put his hand on Jou's shoulder. "My point still stands. Gender doesn't matter and no matter what you're still my best pal." Yugi paused as Jou didn't seem to relax any, his shoulders still extremely tense as he stared at the counter-top. "Jonouchi?"

"What... what if I were to tell you that I'm seeing Kaiba?" He hunched into himself as he half expected Yugi to be disgusted even after his earlier statements. He gasped in surprise as Yugi slipped off his stool and pulled him into a hug.

"Jou, I'm happy for you, really, and as long as you are happy together that is fine by me." He pulled back and looked Jou in the eye. "You ARE happy aren't you?"

"Oh God yes," Jou almost burst, "I haven't been so happy in a long time. It's just... very new and there are still a lot of things we need to work out."

"I'm sure that whatever the problems are, I'm confident that you'll work them out in time." Yugi gave Jou a searching look, "He is treating you alright, isn't he?"

"Yugi, I can honestly say that he really could not treat me any better."

"Good, I'm glad. Kaiba needs someone just as much or maybe even more than you do." Yugi gave a mysterious smile, "I think, no, I know that you are perfect for each other." He paused then added, "I'm guessing that this is just between us? I know some of our friends would not take the news quite so well."

"Yeah, thanks Yug," Jou was obviously relieved, "I'm glad you understand."

"What are friends for?" Yugi beamed. "Now, have you had breakfast yet or were you so fixated on getting here early that you forgot?" They both laughed as Jou's stomach predictably growled in response. "OK, I'm sure I can rustle something up for you."

Jou was just polishing off his second plate of toast when Anzu arrived, followed quickly by Ryou, Honda and Otogi. "Hey guys!" Jou greeted them exuberantly. He smiled as everyone greeted him in return. "So, what's the plan for today?"

"C'mon Jou, you should know this! We're going to Kaiba Land to hit up the arcades and stuff." Honda said in amusement.

"It'll be a bit like a busman's holiday for you though," Anzu piped up, "Are you going to be OK with that?"

"Eh? It won't really be like that," Jou replied. "When I work with Kaiba I spend most of the time in the office. No time for playing games!"

"Just mind he doesn't drag you in to work if he finds you there." Otogi interjected.

"Oh, I'm sure he wouldn't do that," Ryou replied.

"Oh, I don't know about that," Otogi pressed on. "I've heard that he's a pretty hard task master and unpleasant to work for. I bet he doesn't even pay Jou what he's worth…"

Jou gave Otogi a sharp look. "Why does it bother you so much, Dice Boy? Kaiba may have done many things, but he is not that bad an employer and no matter what you may say about him, at least he never humiliated me on public television by making me wear a dog suit."

Sensing that the mood was changing for the worse, Yugi leaped between the two boys before things could go completely down the toilet. "Come on guys. Today is supposed to be about having fun. Don't spoil it by fighting,"

"OK Yug'. For you I won't take this any further." Jou said as he backed down.

Otogi held his hands up in front of him in a defensive gesture. "OK, OK, I'm only worried about Jonouchi's well being." Jou wanted to shout that he could look after himself, thank you very much, but because Yugi had asked, he held his tongue.

"Good" Anzu said before anything else could be said. "Now lets get out of here before these two start butting heads again."

With that, the group got themselves together and left for a fun day at Kaiba Land. Jou was determined that he was going to have fun today and Otogi being weird wasn't going to spoil things if he could help it!

xo xo xo xo xo xo xo

Later on, the group sat at a table in one of the Kaiba Land burger joints after having spent the last several hours making Kaiba Seto considerably richer.

"There are many things that can be said about Kaiba," Honda said, "But he sure knows how people like to be entertained."

"I'll take that as a compliment, fin head." Kaiba said as he approached the group. Honda looked about ready to jump up and start in at Kaiba, but Kaiba ignored him and turned to Jou. "Can I talk to you for a few moments, Jonouchi?" he asked.

"Hah!" Otogi exclaimed, "I knew that you wouldn't be able to have your day off here without being dragged into work."

"Otogi" Yugi admonished the flamboyant dice master, "I'm sure that Kaiba only wants a couple of minutes of Jonouchi's time."

Jonouchi glared at Otogi, then gave Yugi a significant look before dropping his head into his hands in defeat. He peeked up to find Kaiba was also glaring daggers at Otogi. "Look, I'll just be a few minutes, OK?" Jou rose from the table. "Lead the way, Kaiba." The taller teen then guided Jou to a small office a short way away.

"OK, Kaiba," Jonouchi said with a touch of ire as soon as the door clicked shut, "what was so important that you had to drag me away from my friends on my day off?" Jou deliberately stood with his back to the other teen, but turned quickly at Seto's next words.

"I'm sorry Jonouchi," Seto said, "I was just worried about you. I wanted to make sure you were OK after what you told me about your father."

"Well, as you can see I'm fine," Jou said in a more gentle tone of voice. "Did you really worry about me that much?"

Seto blushed and looked away, giving Jonouchi his answer without saying a word.

"Seto..." Jou stepped forwards and made Seto look at him. "You don't have to apologise for that. It's nice that you care about me. Lord knows there are few enough people that truly do."

"Thank you Katsuya," Seto said, feeling a bit better. "Did you have any trouble with your father last night?"

Jou smirked. "No, he didn't even come home. I was pretty sure that he wouldn't, but I couldn't take the chance."

"So you could have come over?" Seto said with a note of regret in his voice.

"Well, to be honest that wasn't the only reason..." Jou said uncertainly.

"Oh?" Seto raised an eyebrow in inquiry.

Jonouchi sighed. "It's just that... if I'd come home with you last night, things would probably have gone a lot further than they did in your office and I... I don't think I'm ready for that just yet."

"Katsuya," Seto pulled the other teen close. "We don't have to do anything that you don't want to. I'm certainly not about to force you into anything."

"It's not that I don't want to," Jonouchi began, "but perhaps this isn't the best place to talk about it."

"I agree," Seto said reluctantly, "and besides, your friends are waiting for you." He paused to consider a moment. "Could you come over this evening?"

"Yeah I guess I can come over for a while," Jou said.

"Come over when you're free then. I'll be going home soon so I will be there and I'll drive you home afterwards." Seto smiled, "In a more discreet car, I promise."

Jou smiled. "That'll be great, thanks Seto. But I'd better get back now or they really will think that you've stolen me away for work" He made to pull away, but found himself held tight. "What is it?"

"Just this," he said and he gave Jou a sweet kiss which Jou enthusiastically returned. After a few seconds, Seto stepped back, letting Jou go.

"I'll see you later, Seto," Jou said in a slightly husky tone, then he turned and left.

"Wow Jou," Honda said as the Jou returned to the group at the table, "I was beginning to think that he had made you go to work today!

"Well, as you can see, he hasn't." Jou replied.

"What did he want anyway?" Otogi asked with a slyly.

"None of your damn business, Otogi!" Jonouchi's voice took on a sharp edge.

"OK, keep your hair on," The raven haired CEO said in return.

"Otogi, why are you intent on antagonizing Jonouchi when it comes to his job with Kaiba?" Ryou asked.

"Yes, this is very unlike you," Yugi agreed." Has something happened between you two that we don't know about?"

"I don't know of anything," Jou said, letting a trace of annoyance show in his voice.

"Sorry," Otogi said as he hung his head. "I had some bad news the other day when some business I was conducting fell through. It was wrong of me to take it out on Jonouchi. I apologise."

Jou was sceptical but didn't want to spoil the day any further. "I accept," he said simply, "Now, who is up for playing some more games?" The group cheered and filed out in search of more fun.

xo xo xo xo xo xo xo

Later that afternoon, the group were just saying their goodbyes when Otogi pulled Jonouchi to one side. "Hey Jonouchi, I want to apologise for my behaviour earlier today. I was way out of line."

"Yeah, I accepted your apology for that earlier," Jou said, "and as far as I'm concerned that should be and end to the matter as long as you don't pull something like that again."

"OK, but I really have heard bad things from people who worked with Kaiba. If he does treat you too badly I'll be glad to take you on."

Jou gave Otogi an odd look. "I'll... keep that in mind." He waved as he turned to walk away, "See you in school tomorrow."

"Hey Jou," Otogi called after the blond as he began to walk away, "do you want to come over to mine for a bit? Play some games or watch a movie or something?"

"Eh, maybe another time Otogi," Jou replied. "There's somewhere I gotta be."

"OK, Jou. See you tomorrow."

Jou picked up his pace before Otogi could try to waylay him again. His behaviour tonight was strange. They had never really got on all that well after the dog suit incident and he'd shown no inclination to try and put things right before now. Not only that, but some of the things he said were beginning to make him a touch suspicious. Perhaps not suspicious enough for him to mention anything to Kaiba _just_ yet, but enough that he felt he really needed to keep an eye on Otogi in future.

Before long he arrived at the Kaiba mansion where he was greeted by the ever-present Mrs Doyle.

"Good evening Master Jonouchi," she said in her distinctive Irish brogue. "Master Kaiba asked me to send you up to his room."

"Thanks Mrs Doyle," Jonouchi replied as he handed her his coat.

"Will you be needing a nice cup of tea bringing up?" she asked.

"No thank you," he replied. "I only just had something to drink before I came."

"OK so," she said as Jonouchi took to the stairs. Jou approached Seto's bedroom with some trepidation. He'd told Seto that he was unsure about going further, but the fact that Seto was in his bedroom... Was it some kind of signal?

Jou shrugged mentally. He reasoned that Seto probably had a good reason for wanting to meet him here and he wasn't going to find out what it was if he just stood outside. He finally knocked on the door and upon being acknowledged, stepped inside and closed the door behind him. "Hey Seto." He tried to disguise his nervousness and failed utterly.

"Katsuya, glad you could make it," Seto said with one of his rare genuine smiles. "Don't worry. I don't have an ulterior motive to meeting you here. It's just that it's the only room I can guarantee that we won't be overheard in, so you can stop looking so nervous now."

"I was that obvious huh?" Jonouchi said ruefully. "Well, I did already tell myself that you had to have a good reason for wanting to meet in your room..."

"Thank you for trusting me." Seto rose and walked to where Jonouchi was still hovering in the doorway. "Come on I won't bite – unless you want me to."

"Jou laughed as he was guided into the room, but stopped when something caught his attention. He looked up to where there were security cameras at several strategic places around the room. He must have been so out of it the previous time he was there that he hadn't even noticed them.

Seto noticed where he was looking. "Those cameras have all been isolated from the system. I don't like being watched all the time," he reassured Jou. He directed Jou to sit on the chair he had recently vacated while he sat himself on the edge of his large bed.

"So, Katsuya," Seto began when it was clear that Jou wouldn't be talking any time soon, "Earlier on you said that it wasn't that you didn't want to come over last night, but that we weren't in the best place to talk about it, so how about we start there." Jou didn't answer, just looked at his feet. "Don't worry, whatever it is can't be that bad and I promise I won't make fun of you."

Jou looked up, "Thanks Seto. That means a lot." He gathered his courage and started to speak, "It's just that... I get so confused. Our whole dynamic is all about you being in control, but the few times we've kissed..."

"The dynamic seemed to change completely and you were worried that you were reading the cues wrong?"

"Yes, that's it exactly," Jou said in some relief, "and it's not like I have much experience with this kind of thing."

"Well, let me put your fears to rest," Seto said. "Yes, in normal everyday circumstances I have to be in control, if I weren't then there would be no way that I could stay in my position as CEO of Kaiba Corporation, but conversely I've found that my most... intense sexual fantasies involve me being the dominated partner. I did a little research and I found that it's quite a common occurrence for people in my position to need to give up control sometimes and where better than with a trusted partner in the bedroom?"

Jou thought for a moment, then his face twisted in dismay. "You're not into all that S&M stuff are you?" he asked. "I... I don't think I can do that."

"No, not at all," Seto reassured, wincing slightly at the thought. He'd been through enough pain in his childhood that the very idea was repugnant. "I think that just being the submissive partner would be quite enough."

"I guess it makes sense, in a twisted kind of way" Jou mused. "I do have to admit that the way you surrendered yourself so easily almost freaked me out at first, but now I just find it... amazingly hot." He flushed, "but I meant it when I said I don't have much experience. Hell, I don't have any really. I don't want to spoil things by doing something wrong."

"Jou, come and sit with me on the bed." Seto said. He waited until Jou had complied, then put his arm around him. "I'm going to be honest with you, I don't have any experience either. I had always avoided relationships until now because I was worried that my... acquiescence... in the bedroom could be taken advantage of or seen as a sign of weakness, but I know that with you it won't be the case."

Jou looked up to see the honestly shining out of Seto's eyes and in that moment he was lost. In a quick movement he pushed Seto so that he was lying back on the bed and straddled his waist. He gasped as he realised that Seto was half hard already, then leaned down and caught his lips in a bruising kiss. Seto responded passionately as Jou moved from kissing his lips and began to attack his neck, hands reaching to undo shirt buttons and expose the porcelain skin beneath.

"Jou, stop a moment," Seto said breathlessly. Jou shot up as if stung, worried that he'd read the cues wrong despite Seto's earlier explanation. Seto noticed the worried expression on Jonouchi's face and quickly reassured him. "I just wanted to get a little more comfortable on the bed, that's all. I definitely don't want you to stop altogether."

Jou got off Seto and watched with hungry eyes as he moved to the centre of the bed. Once Seto was in position, Jou crawled over to him and looked intensely at him. "So, how far do you want to go, Seto," he asked huskily.

"As far as you feel comfortable with, Katsuya," Seto replied with a lust filled voice. "You are in charge here."

"Alright," Jou said simply as he leaned over Seto and caught his lips in a bruising kiss. Seto couldn't help but buck up as Jou started to kiss his neck. "You really are sensitive here, aren't you Seto," Jou murmured as he continued to kiss that area of skin.

"Please Jou," Seto breathed.

"Patience," Jou said as he teasingly cupped Seto's hardness through the cloth of his trousers, then leaned in again to catch Seto's lips in another sweet kiss.

Seto couldn't help but wonder at the change in Jou's demeanour. Just a few moments ago he had been completely unsure of himself, every inch the bumbling puppy. But now he was almost uncharacteristically confident and outgoing. If Jonouchi was acting, he was doing a convincing job of it. Not that he really cared right now as long as Jou kept up this heavenly torture.

As Jonouchi continued to make love to Seto, he realised that he didn't know where this sudden knowledge of what to do had come from, but while he was getting such delicious reactions from the brunet writhing beneath him he was going to take full advantage now and ask questions later!

"I love you Seto," Jou whispered, but at that moment, Seto was too far gone to notice and Jou was very close behind. Moments later Seto reached his climax, Jou following almost straight away then, suddenly feeling his strength ebbing away, Jou collapsed on the bed next to his love. "Oh man, Seto, that was amazing," he panted.

"My sentiments exactly," Seto replied breathlessly. However, even the afterglow couldn't stop Seto's analytical mind from working, "but where the hell did that come from? I thought that you had no idea what to do!"

Jou was quiet for a moment as he gathered his thoughts. "I... I don't know," he said, his voice echoing his confusion. "Once we started I just... knew. It was almost like we'd done it before..."

"What are you saying Jonouchi?" Seto wasn't sure that he liked where Jou's thoughts were going.

Jou picked up on the slight change of mood and decided to change tack before the evening was spoiled. "Well whatever it was I'm kinda grateful. I know that I'd have ruined it for both of us otherwise." He got up from the bed, padded to the bathroom and came back with a towel in order to clean Seto up.

Seto stopped him. "Don't worry about that. Let's go and take a shower instead." He took the towel and gave himself a cursory wipe, then got up and led Jonouchi to the bathroom. Jou followed quietly, glad to have dodged the bullet for now, but he resolved to speak to Yugi about it later. There was more to this that he needed to know and he was sure that Yugi would have at least some of the answers.

Soon they were both showered and dressed, but as Seto was about to broach the subject of Jonouchi's seeming experience again, his phone rang. Reluctantly he answered and immediately got into a heated discussion with the person on the other end of the line. Seeing as Seto was obviously going to be occupied for a while, Jou slipped out of the room and went to see what Mokuba was up to. He knocked on the door and slipped inside to find the black haired boy sat at his computer. "Hey Squirt," Jou greeted him.

"Jou!" Mokuba started almost guiltily, then looked at Jou with what could only be described as haunted eyes. "What brings you here?"

Jou regarded Mokuba with a worried gaze. "What's the matter, Mokuba? This isn't like you."

"I'm sorry." Mokuba looked at the floor.

"What are you sorry for, Kiddo?" Jou was beginning to worry.

"I... I..." Mokuba buried his face into his hands.

"It's OK kiddo," Jou walked over to where Mokuba was sitting and brought himself down to the boy's level, "You can tell me. Or do you want me to go and get Seto?"

"No, no, I'm fine," Mokuba gave Jou a watery smile. "It's nothing, really."

"You sure?" Jou asked. Mokuba gave a jerky nod, so he turned to get up, knowing that Mokuba obviously didn't want to tell him anything, but maybe he would talk to Seto. As he stood, he accidentally put his hand on Mokuba's laptop and brought up a minimised window. Jou gasped as he saw the images displayed on the screen. "Mokuba, what is this? No scratch that, WHY do you have this?" The images in question were of what Seto and himself had been doing only minutes before and from the angle they could only have been taken using the security cameras that Seto insisted had been deactivated.

"I'm sorry Jou!" Mokuba was even more upset now. "I just wanted to know what you were doing so I hacked into the cameras in Seto's room." He looked up at Jou. "I really crossed a line didn't I?"

"Mokuba, you are so far over the line that it's not funny." Jou stood and put his head in his hands, "Your brother is a very private person and this is a gross invasion of his, no, our privacy."

"I get that but... does Seto really... like that?" Mokuba asked hesitantly. "I... I never thought that you would be the dominant partner. No offence..."

"None taken," Jou said, "and I would never do anything that Seto didn't want. But I don't think this is a conversation that I should be having with you. This is something that you should discuss with your brother."

"I take it that you are going to tell Seto then," Mokuba sighed, knowing that he was in a whole heap of trouble.

"Mokie, I have no choice. I _have_to tell him." He paused as something occurred to him, "Can the security staff see those images?"

"No, they are only accessible from my computer." Mokuba said confidently.

"But if you hacked them, then so could someone else." Jou wasn't about to let it go.

"I can guarantee that wouldn't happen," Mokuba insisted.

"How can you be so sure?" Jou asked insistently.

"I'd make sure it couldn't happen!" a new voice came from the computer speakers.

"Don't tell me," Jou covered his eyes, "Noa helped you."

"You know about Noa?" Mokuba was shocked.

"Mrs Doyle let something slip about 'the boy who lives inside the television'. I should have guessed that you'd be in on it somewhere Mokuba." Jou was exasperated.

"Noa! How many other people have you been talking to?" Mokuba exclaimed.

"Just Mrs Doyle, I swear," Noa said in earnest. "It's just that she's so lonely here. Not many of the staff speak English and those that do won't talk to her much."

"Look, this is all very well," Jou interjected before Mokuba could speak again, "but the last time we met Noa he tried to kill us all. I need to be sure that he's not a threat."

"He isn't!" Mokuba exclaimed, "I've been speaking to him for months and I'm convinced he's legit."

"Noa?" Jou asked.

"I'm not the same Noa you met before, Jonouchi," the green haired boy replied. "I'm a backup of the original, from before he became bitter and twisted. Mokuba found and reactivated me a few months ago and filled me in on what my... previous incarnation did and I'm utterly disgusted by what he tried to do to you all. Please don't tell Seto. I swear I'm not a threat. You have to believe me!"

Jou took in Mokuba's hopeful face and the desperate visage of Noa with an internal sigh. "OK," he said after a moment, "I won't tell Seto about you..."

"Thank you Jou!" the boys chorused.

"...Yet," Jonouchi concluded as he watched their faces fall. "However, I'm going to encourage you to tell him yourselves." He gave the boys a serious look. "Can you imagine Seto's reaction if he were to find out about Noa accidentally? He is much more likely to react in a favourable manner if you go to him and present yourselves properly."

Mokuba sighed, "You're right, it would be really bad if he caught us."

"But Mokuba," Noa protested, "what if he won't listen and deletes me?" The green haired boy had tears standing in his eyes.

"I won't let that happen to you!" Mokuba cried. "He can't do that, I'd never forgive him if he did!"

Jonouchi interrupted before the boys could wind themselves up any more. "If it comes to that then you can count on me to speak up for you too. Everyone deserves a second chance and Seto should understand that more than most.

"Thank you Jonouchi," the two boys chorused again, albeit in a more subdued manner than last time.

"I am going to have to tell him about you hacking the security cameras in his room though," Jou said, "So I'd probably wait a few days to let him calm down if I were you." He winked at them. "Now I'd better get back or he'll be wondering where I've got to."

"See you Jou," Mokuba said as the older boy left the room.

Jou got back to Seto's room just as he finished his phone call. "Problems?" the blond asked.

"Nothing that can't wait." Seto said, "You know what some of those imbeciles I employ can be like. Sometimes I swear that they need their hands held through every little thing." He looked at Jou, "Where did you go anyway?"

"I went to talk to Mokuba about something." Jou said.

"What did you speak to him about?" Seto asked.

"Oh, just his voyeuristic tendencies," Jou attempted to wave it off.

Seto gave an indulgent smile. "Oh, him and that camera. What did he take a picture of this time?"

Jou was momentarily silent as he pondered how to say this to Seto. "He didn't use the camera this time."

"What do you mean?"

Jou took a deep breath. "He hacked into your security cameras, Seto. I decided to go and see what he was up to while you were occupied on the phone and I discovered that he had... video of us on his computer."

"What kind of video?" Seto asked, knowing that he wasn't going to like the answer.

"It was of what we were doing in here earlier," Jou said with a sigh.

"Shit. How much did he see?"

"Pretty much everything as far as I can tell. I think he's quite upset about it and you're going to have to talk to him about it. Sorry." The room was silent for several long moments. "Seto?" Jou put a wealth of questions into that one word.

"You should not have come here tonight," Seto said quietly in a way that left no doubt that he was suppressing his anger. "Thanks to you my little brother is corrupted..."

"Now wait one damn moment," Jou interjected angrily, "That is not true and you know it!"

"Do I, Jonouchi?" Seto's eyes flashed, "You also said that you were inexperienced, but there is no way that a virgin could know how to do the things you did so well."

Jou was stunned, both from the compliment and the accusation. "I... can't explain that, but I did not lie to you," he insisted. "Before I came here tonight I _was_ a virgin. Hell, I've never even gone past kissing before, and besides, you were giving quite a good performance yourself there, despite saying that *you* had no experience."

"Whatever Mutt, I don't care anymore." Seto spat, and with that he swept out of the room, intent on finding out exactly what Mokuba had done and why.

Jou stood there completely stunned for several moments. Where had it all gone wrong? Everything had been going so well. He'd even told Seto that he loved him. OK, Seto hadn't answered, but then Jou wasn't sure that Seto had even heard him and he certainly wasn't going to ask if he had, especially not now. With his heart breaking and unable to stop tears from leaking down his face, he made his way from the house, picking his coat up from a worried looking Mrs Doyle as he left. He waved off her concerned fussing and started the long trek towards home.

Quite a long while and one upset and thoroughly chastised little brother later, Seto returned to his room with Mokuba's laptop under his arm. He set the computer down and sat at his desk, wondering at the audacity of little brothers and how they seemed to be sent to cause as much trouble as possible.

Then his thoughts inevitably turned to Jonouchi. Damn, but the mutt had gotten under his skin, which was something he didn't really want to contemplate right now. He opened up his computer, connected directly to Mokuba's machine and moved the offending videos from his brother's computer to his own. Once he was satisfied that there was no suspect material left in Mokuba's file system, he shut down Mokuba's computer and opened the first video.

Seto sat there entranced as he watched Jonouchi pleasuring him on the bed, but then he heard something. He skipped back a moment and turned up the volume. There it was again. Jou had definitely said 'I love you, Seto.' He watched more of the video and he realised that Jou really was making love to him, that it was definitely more than just sex. With that realisation he shut down the computer, gave himself a moment or two to calm down, then swept from the room. He soon came across a quite concerned looking Mrs. Doyle.

"Mrs Doyle," Seto addressed the housekeeper, "Have you seen Jonouchi?" Seto knew it was a long shot that Jou would still be here, but he had to ask.

"Why yes Master Kaiba," she replied, "He left about an hour ago and I must say that he looked most upset."

"Upset? How so?"

"Well, if I didn't know any better I'd say that he looked like his heart had just been well and truly broken."

Seto's own heart lurched in his chest, then he deliberately tamped his emotions down. "Thank you Mrs Doyle," he said coolly, "and don't worry too much about Jonouchi. He always bounces back." With that he stalked back to his room.

Now he had some thinking to do. First Jou had told him that he loved him. He hadn't replied because he hadn't heard that confession, but he guessed that Jou didn't know that. Then he had blamed Jou for what Mokuba had done even after he'd assured him that the cameras were inactive and he'd called Jou a mutt on top of that. The blond had every right to be heartbroken.

But Jou had lied about his sexual experience. He couldn't think of another explanation for it and if there was anything that Seto hated it was being lied to by people he thought he could trust. Jou had appeared to act confused over the whole thing, but there was every likelihood that it was just that - an act.

Seto made a decision. He would give Jou the night to stew and think things over then Seto would ask him for an explanation tomorrow. What happened after that would depend on how Jou answered. With that decision made he went to make sure that Mokuba was getting ready for bed before getting settling in for the night himself.

It was to be quite a sleepless night for all involved.

xo xo xo xo xo xo xo

**A/N** - Obviously, I have removed a lemon from this chapter. There is a link to my AFF account on my profile where you will find it in the corresponding chapter of this story.

Thank you for reading. ^_^


	7. Chapter 7

**Disclaimer:** I do not own YuGiOh!. That pleasure belongs to Kazuki Takahashi. I also do not own Father Ted. That belongs to Hat Trick and Channel 4. This is solely written for fun and not for profit.

xo xo xo xo xo xo xo

The next morning found a weary Jonouchi Katsuya slouching his way into school. He had slept very little the night before and was, as a consequence, very tired. He arrived into the classroom and slumped into his seat just as the teacher arrived which prevented his friends from grilling him about what was wrong, somethinf that suited him quite well at the moment. He also noted that Seto wasn't in class that morning. In a way he was relieved about that as he didn't think that he could stand to face Seto's icy demeanour right now.

As the morning progressed in it's usual monotonous way, Jou noticed that Yugi was continually giving him concerned looks. Jou also noted that Otogi seemed to be itching to talk to him, most likely to try and find out if Kaiba was treating him badly enough that he would accept that job offer. Hell, he might even have to take Otogi up on that as he wasn't sure if he still _had _a job after what had happened last night, but even if it did come to that, taking a job with Otogi would only be a temporary measure until he could find alternate employment and he vowed that he would never betray Seto's secrets.

He managed to avoid his friends at first break, but knew he wouldn't be able to escape at lunchtime. Jou was proved correct when as soon as the bell rang for lunch, Yugi was making a bee-line for him before he could even get up from his desk.

"Jou, I can tell that something's wrong," Yugi observed, all wide-eyed concern. "Do you need to talk about it?"

Jou sighed and decided to give it up. "Yeah, I do need to talk to you, Yug'," he said, "but not here." He pointedly looked towards the rest of their group who were utterly failing at looking like they weren't trying to listen in.

"I understand," Yugi said as Jou stood up. Yugi gave the rest of the group a pointed look that clearly said, 'don't follow us' then followed Jou out of the room. They walked out of the school entrance and around to the small alleyway that existed between the main school building and the gym so they could talk in relative privacy.

As Yugi and Jou were about to disappear around the side of the school building, a sleek black limo pulled up at the school gates. Kaiba stepped out and spotted the duo as they slipped into the entryway. Good. He wanted to speak to the mutt and it was better if he had the luxury of doing so without having to drag him to his limo for privacy, although he still might have to do so if he couldn't get shot of the shrimp.

He quickly made his way over to the alley, but then stopped just outside the entrance as he heard talking, instead deciding to listen in as he might find out something that he wouldn't have managed to otherwise.

"Jou, tell me what's wrong. You've been acting like, well, a kicked puppy all morning." Yugi paused as Jou flinched at Yugi's choice of words. "It's about Kaiba isn't it?"

Jou sighed. "Yeah, you just about hit the nail on the head. When I spoke to him at lunchtime yesterday he invited me to his house so that we could talk." Jou flushed. "We did talk, a little anyway, but that led to... other things."

"You had sex with Kaiba?" Yugi's eyes looked like they were about to pop out of their sockets.

"It was more than that, Yug'," Jou said.

"Sorry Jou, I didn't mean to imply that it was something cheap," Yugi said. "So why the long face this morning?"

"I'm getting to it. To start with, I told him that I love him," Jou's cheeks were bright pink now, "He didn't reply, but then I'm not sure if he heard me."

"Do you love him?" Yugi asked simply.

"Yeah, I do," Jou replied sadly, "I wouldn't have said it otherwise. I know it might seem fast, especially since I only told you about us getting together yesterday, but we've been working together for a while and I've always been attracted to him."

"So what went wrong?" Yugi asked gently.

Jou shrugged, "Well, after we'd... finished and showered, Seto had a phone call to attend to so I went to see Mokuba while he was busy." Jou shook his head in exasperated amusement, "I found out that the kid is quite the little voyeur. He'd hacked into the security cameras in Seto's room – the ones Seto specifically reassured me were isolated from the system – and he watched the entire thing. Recorded it too. Of course I had to inform Seto about it." Jou gave a bitter laugh, "He blamed me for corrupting his little brother and said that I should never have come over."

"But he invited you," Yugi observed, "plus if I know Kaiba, once he's thought it over he'll realise that it wasn't your fault."

"Yeah you're right, but there is something else Seto wants an explanation for that I just _can't_explain."

Just outside the alley, Seto tensed. This was where he would learn the truth.

Jou took a deep breath before he started speaking, "When we made love, God Yug, it was amazing, but..."

"But?" Yugi prompted when Jou didn't speak.

"You gotta understand, last night I was a virgin and I had no experience to speak of. Hell, I'd never even got past kissing before." Jou gave a wry grin, "I don't think either of us intended for things to go as far as they did, but everything felt so familiar, so right, as if we'd done it many times before. But it was only the first time." Jou hung his head and rubbed at his eyes, "Seto said I'd lied to him, that there was no way I should be so... experienced. And he's right. I'm just so confused."

"Oh Jou, I'm sorry," Yugi said as he put a comforting hand on Jou's arm. "I think I might have an explanation for what may have happened, but I don't think it's going to help your situation with Kaiba any."

"That's OK Yug'," Jou replied wanly, "I guess If I have some kind of explanation for what happened it'll make me feel a little better at least."

"OK Jou," Yugi said, "Remember how I've always avoided your questions about whether you had a role in Ancient Egypt?"

"Yeah," Jou replied.

"Well you were there. Your name back then was Jono."

"Really? How come I don't remember anything about it then?"

"It's really only those that played Shadow Games that remember anything, at least that is how Atem explained it to me." Yugi looked slightly pained at the mention of the ancient Pharaoh's name. "And before you ask about Kaiba, you know as well as I do that he rejects anything that has to do with his past. He'd deny the whole thing outright if we hadn't all seen it for ourselves."

"Yeah, I can get that. So how does this explain things?"

"I'm getting there," Yugi said. "You see, Jono was the personal servant to Seth and they were also lovers. That is most likely how come you just 'knew' what to do; you remembered your past life on some level." Yugi looked at Jou apologetically, "I'm sorry that I never told you about this before. Both Atem and myself thought it was for the best considering how you and Kaiba would fight all the time. Once you were getting on better I didn't say anything because I thought it might poison the working relationship that you had managed to build. Kaiba would have fought against any thought of it and you... well..."

"Yeah, I get what you are saying Yug," Jou replied, "and to be honest it sounds like I was fucked either way. I'm glad I could have that one time with him at least. Dammit." Jou hung his head once again and wiped furiously at his eyes. Yugi patted his friend consolingly and Seto's heart almost broke at the sight of his puppy's heart breaking all over again. He was about to intervene, but something made him hang back for just a moment more.

Jou got himself back under control and looked at Yugi. "Hey Yug. I got one more question for ya. If I had a past life in Ancient Egypt, where was I when all the Millennium Items stuff was going down?"

Yugi once again had a pained expression on his face. "You... you have to understand that this happened before Atem became Pharaoh," he began. "Jono and Seth had to be lovers in secret but word somehow got out about the affair so the Pharaoh and High Priest at the time decided to have Jono executed. If it had come out just a couple of months later..." Yugi shrugged then went quiet.

"Well, damn," Jou sighed, thinking about the pain that Seth must have gone through. "I guess that explains that then. I'm still screwed though. No way will Seto take that as an explanation."

"Oh Jou, I'm so sorry." Yugi said with genuine compassion.

Jou plastered a smile on his face, "Don't worry Yug. I'll bounce back. I always do, right?"

Seto finally decided that he'd heard enough. The things they said did make some kind of sense and he'd had enough dreams of Seth with Jono. He'd always brushed them off as nothing more than the production an over active imagination and his own hidden longing for the Mutt, but after hearing what Jou and Yugi had discussed, although he didn't like it, made him realise that they were probably not just dreams. Pulling himself back together, he made his presence known before the pair could leave the relative privacy of that small alley.

"Thank you Mutou," Kaiba said in a no-nonsense tone of voice, "I can take it from here."

Jou gasped at the sound of Seto's voice. "Kaiba! How long have you been there?"

"Long enough, Jou," Seto replied. "I'm sorry I went off at you last night. You really didn't deserve that and I was just so shocked by what Mokuba had done..."

"That's OK Seto," Jou interrupted.

"That's not all Katsuya," Seto's voice was much gentler now. "I'm sorry that I accused you of lying to me. I can be stubborn when it comes to acknowledging my... our past life." Jou stood quietly and listened as he could tell what it was costing Seto to say this. "I should have realised that we knew each other from... before... and had I listened to what my dreams had been telling me I would have known the truth last night." He stepped closer to Jou, but did not touch him. "Can you forgive me?"

Jou didn't say anything but gave a cursory look around to make sure no-one except Yugi could see them, then he pulled Seto into a deep kiss. "Does that answer your question," he asked as he released him.

"Thank you Katsuya," Seto said with some relief, "and... I love you too."

"Did you hear me say that last night or did you just overhear me telling Yugi?" Jou asked cautiously.

"Neither," Seto said. "I heard you say it when I played back the videos I removed from Mokuba's computer. I'm sorry, I really should have been paying more attention."

"Hey," Jou grinned, "I can't help it if I'm so good that I can reduce you to a pile of mush."

"Yeah, you always could," Seto said. It took a moment before Jou realised that Seto was talking about their past life.

"Seto," he breathed almost in awe as he pulled Seto down into another kiss.

They didn't have very long until Yugi interrupted them. "Look, I really hate to break this up, but the others will come looking for us if we don't head in to lunch soon."

"You are right of course, Mutou," Seto said. "I take it that I can trust you to keep this to yourself?"

"Of course, Kaiba," Yugi said with a smile.

Kaiba nodded then turned to Jou. "We'll have to continue this at another time. I'm heading to the library to catch up on some work so I'll see you later."

"Alright Seto, see you later." Jou gave Seto one last kiss then he and Yugi quickly made their way to the canteen. Jou found himself the centre of attention as they sat at their usual table.

"Is everything OK Jou?" Honda asked.

"Yep, everything is fine now," Jou replied with large smile.

"Did Yugi really help you that much?" Anzu said curiously, "You've looked like the world was ending all morning."

"It's OK," Yugi spoke up, "I just told him something that he needed to hear." Yugi shared a look with Ryou, Jou noticed the look and wondered what that was about, but he couldn't wonder for long as Otogi had something to say.

"Are you sure you are OK Jou?" Otogi oozed false concern, "If Kaiba is treating you badly..."

"You'll do what Dice Boy?" Jou was getting quite annoyed by now.

"He won't do anything," Kaiba pinned Otogi with a contemptuous glare as he walked up to their table, "not if he knows what is good for him anyway." Seto turned his attention to Jonouchi. "I forgot to mention it before, but I'll pick you up straight after school tonight. There's a lot of work to be done and I'll need you there as soon as possible."

"OK, Kaiba," Jou replied, "I'll do my best not to get detention."

"See that you don't" Seto said brusquely as he turned and left without giving the rest of the table a second glance. Jou wasn't bothered in the slightest by Seto's attitude. He knew by now that he was only acting that way for show and Seto's eyes told him everything that he needed to know about his true feelings.

"Who the hell does he think he is?" Otogi burst out as soon as Kaiba had left. "He's ordering you around like some kind of... dog."

Jou bristled, instantly on the defensive. "He does NOT treat me like a dog, Otogi," he replied with some heat.

"Well he calls you one often enough," Otogi pushed.

"Otogi," Anzu interjected as Jou struggled to control his temper, "you should know Jou well enough by now to know that he wouldn't still be working for Kaiba if he were treating him badly."

"I agree with Anzu," Ryou said. "If Kaiba were treating him as badly as you make out he is, Jou would probably have been fired for attacking his boss weeks ago."

"Humph," Otogi made an inarticulate noise as he sat back in his seat and crossed his arms, "I'm just concerned for Jou's well being, that's all."

"Well, you sure have a funny way of showing it." Jou said. "I told you before that Kaiba does not treat me badly or like some kind of dog or slave and I'm getting really annoyed that you won't take my word for it." Jou stood, his chair making a sharp noise as it suddenly scraped back across the tiled floor. He needed to get away for now. "If you'll excuse me," he said as he left the table.

"Just what are you trying to pull, Otogi?" Anzu demanded once Jou had left the room. "You've never really cared how Kaiba treated Jou apart from when he first told us about his new job, but over this last weekend you've really gone to town on it."

"I'm not up to anything," Otogi insisted.

Yugi spoke up this time, "Well can you please stop antagonising Jou? He's made it clear at least a couple of times now that he does not appreciate your interference."

"I agree with Yugi," Ryou piped up, "and I trust Jou to look after himself."

Otogi sighed, knowing that he had lost this one. "Alright, I'll let it go but I'm still going to worry about him."

"I worry about him too," Honda said, "But if you can't find a better way to express it, you should probably keep it to yourself in future."

Otogi sat back in contemplation. He'd been hoping to get Jou to blow up so he might get detention and therefore inconvenience Kaiba, but he had showed unusual restraint. There was something strange going on there and he was determined to find out what it was and see if he could turn it to his advantage.

He was still sore from losing his number one source of information, limited as it was, when Kaiba's secretary had been unable to contain her frustration at being unable to secure the personal assistant's job and had attacked Jonouchi. His attempts to recruit Jou to his side over the last couple of days had failed woefully as he'd gone in under the assumption that Kaiba and Jou still hated each other on some level. He now knew that this was definitely the wrong tack to take, but even if there was now no way that he could manage to get information that would enable The Black Crown to steal a march on Kaiba Corporation for once, it would not stop him from attempting to at least take the other CEO down a peg or two. It would just take a little longer, that was all.

xo xo xo xo xo xo xo

Meanwhile, Jou made his way to the library. He needed to talk to Seto about Otogi's recent behaviour whilst it was fresh in his mind. Even if he was wrong and Otogi was just being an ass for the sake of being an ass, running the odd things that had been said past Kaiba couldn't hurt. He soon located him and joined him at his table. Kaiba raised an eyebrow as he noted that Jou had joined him and nodded to acknowledge his presence. They then sat silently for a few moments as Seto finished up the document he was working on.

"Hey Seto," Jou said when Kaiba was finally free, "you mentioned that you watched that video last night. Was it any good?"

"Oh yes," Seto smirked, "It was a good film. I should invite you over to see it."

"I think I'd like that," Jou surreptitiously took a bite of his sandwich, hoping that the librarian wouldn't catch him.

"Was Otogi that bad that you couldn't even stay to eat your lunch?" Seto asked with a raised eyebrow.

"You could say that," Jonouchi said with distaste. He paused for a moment before speaking again in a low voice, "Otogi has been acting really weird lately..."

"How so?"

"Well, we've never really got on all that well since he put me in that dog suit and showed it on national television..."

Kaiba was surprised, "That actually happened? I heard rumours but I'd never seen it for myself."

"Yeah, well I'd rather forget about it thanks," Jou said with a hint of a scowl. "He was in an especially foul mood yesterday and he took the brunt of it out on me - mainly by insulting you."

"And that is out of the ordinary?" Kaiba couldn't help but ask.

"Well, the insulting you isn't that uncommon really, but he was saying that you treat all your staff really badly and that isn't something that normally comes up." Jou stopped for a moment as he gathered his thoughts.

"Anything else?" Seto prompted.

"Yeah, just getting to it. Gotta get it straight in my head, you know." Jou said. Seto nodded and waited until Jou was ready to continue. "He apologised to me when you left yesterday... and he said he'd had some bad news, something business related that fell through. He said that he had no right taking it out on me. Then when we were all going our separate ways last night, he apologised again, repeated that he'd heard that you treated your staff really badly and offered me a job if I wanted one."

Seto had a speculative look on his face. "Hmm, it's not enough to prove anything, but I'd be willing to bet that he's the one that my old secretary was sending information to."

"I was beginning to suspect as much myself. I would have mentioned it last night, but..."

"That's OK Jonouchi, I understand. We'll just have to keep an eye on him for now."

"Yeah, I know I will," Jou replied. "Um... is Mokuba OK?" he asked cautiously, knowing that the care of the younger Kaiba was a touchy subject with Seto.

"He is... as fine as can be expected," Seto said. "I had a long talk with him last night and he knows that what he did was very wrong. He's promised not to do it again and he's fine with... how things are, although he was a little shocked." Kaiba had a wry look on his face.

Jou blinked slightly as he made sense of what was in essence a very coded message. "Hmm... you'd have thought he'd have got it after he came into the office on Saturday," Jou mused.

"Quite," Seto replied, "but I don't think this is the sort of conversation we should be having now."

"You're right, of course," Jou replied as he stood up, "and I guess I'd better get to class before I'm late and end up with detention."

"Alright Jou, I'll see you after school," Seto said as he began to pack away in order to get to his own class.

"Later Kaiba," Jou waved. He left for class and caught up with the rest of the group on the way.

"Jou!" Anzu greeted him. "Are you alright?"

"Yeah, I'm good," Jou replied. "Why wouldn't I be?"

"Was it Kaiba that had you all upset this morning?" she asked observently.

"It was all a big misunderstanding," Jou replied. "Really, everything is fine."

"Well, if you have any more misunderstandings like that, my offer is still open," Otogi said slyly.

"What offer is that?" Ryou asked.

"Oh, he thinks that Kaiba treats me badly at work," Jou said with a smile, "so he offered me a job."

"Really?" It was Honda that spoke and he seemed surprised as he looked sharply at Otogi.

"Really," Jou confirmed, "and although I appreciate the offer, Kaiba is treating me just fine thank you." He tried to close the argument down before it started as his friends looked at him speculatively. However, he didn't miss the frown that crossed Otogi's face.

"Well, he'd better be treating you right and not a some kind of slave, or I'll..." Honda was cut off before he could finish that thought.

"You'll what Hon'?" Jou didn't bother to hide his annoyance. "Look, I'm a big boy and I can look after myself so as far as I'm concerned this topic of conversation is over, OK?" When there was no more objection he gave a small smile. "Good, now come on or we'll be late for class!"

xo xo xo xo xo xo xo

It would be several days before Jou got to see the video. In the meantime, Jou had finally found someone that he thought that both he and Seto could work with to be the new secretary. He'd had to do several background checks to try and avoid the possibility of another Keiko and he'd finally settled on a young woman called Saya who had a sunny disposition and had proved to be competent and efficient in her previous position with the company. Seto seemed happy enough at the moment anyway and that was the main thing as far as Jou was concerned.

As for Jou's dad, the man had returned from his extended bender on the Monday night and everything had pretty much gone back to the way it had been before. Well, apart from the fact that he knew that Jou was earning more and as a result had to give him more money. This didn't help in any way to stop Seto from worrying about him.

That Friday, Seto declared that they would not be going into the office and that they would be working from his home instead. He explained to Jou that Mokuba heard from Mrs. Doyle that he had left under a cloud on Sunday night and he had been beside himself when he realised that Seto had blamed Jou for what had happened. Apparently Mokuba would not be satisfied until Seto had brought Jou back to the mansion so that he could see that things were alright for himself.

Jou understood Seto's reasoning, but he was under no illusion that Mokuba was the only reason that Kaiba had decided to move their 'work' to the mansion that evening. Jou figured that it was just as well that his dad had gone out on yet another bender so he wouldn't have to go home tonight, but even as he was looking forward to actually being able to spend the night with Seto, the thought of what his dad was up to made Jou sigh internally. Had his dad been a decent person they could have a much better life with what Jou was now earning, but the man just had to insist on going out to piss and gamble it all away. Heaven knew what the man would do when Jou disappeared on his 18th birthday, but then Jou figured that it would no longer be his problem.

"Good afternoon Master Jonouchi, Master Kaiba," Mrs Doyle greeted them as they entered the mansion. "I hope you are feeling better today Master Jonouchi."

"I'm great thanks Mrs Doyle," Jou replied with a big smile. "It was just a big misunderstanding. All sorted out now."

"I'm glad to hear it," She said as she gave Seto a pointed look. Seto was about to reply when a black haired blur flew through the hallway and attached itself to Jou.

"Jonouchi, I'm so sorry," Mokuba cried as he hugged Jou around the waist. "I never meant for Seto to blame you!"

"It's OK squirt," Jou said with a sincere smile as he ruffled Mokuba's hair affectionately. "It's all sorted out now and I gotta say that it's nice to have so many people concerned about me."

"What about your friends, Mutt?" Seto asked sourly. "Don't they care about you?"

"Well, yeah of course they do," Jou said, "well, most of them do anyway, but the more the merrier, right?" He didn't think that he could explain why this was different, especially in current company. Mrs Doyle still seemed to be completely clueless about her employer's relationship with him and he planned to keep it that way in case it caused trouble for Seto.

"Of course it's great that you have a lot of friends," Mrs Doyle said in her cheerful voice. "You can never have too many friends." However cheerful she sounded, Jou could hear the sad undertone to Mrs Doyle's voice, as did Mokuba. If Seto heard it he gave no outward sign.

"Alright Pup," he said in Japanese after dismissing the housekeeper, "let's head to the game room until dinner is served."

"Seto?" Mokuba said, "Are you feeling alright?"

"Yes, why?" Seto was a little surprised by the question.

"It's just that you never play games before dinner." Mokuba supplied.

"That true?" Jou asked. As Mokuba nodded, Jou reached up and put his hand on Seto's forehead. "Nope, no temperature."

"Shall I call the doctor anyway?" Mokuba asked dramatically.

"You two are a real pair of comedians," Seto sighed as he rolled his eyes at their antics. He walked off towards the game room with Mokuba and Jou following behind, giggling.

"But seriously Jou," Mokuba said as he sobered up a little, "I am really sorry."

"That's OK kiddo," Jou said. "I hope Seto wasn't too hard on you."

"Nothing more than I deserve," Mokuba replied. "He said that I can have my computer back in a few days as long as I promise not to do something like that again. Which I won't. I realised at the time that it was a terribly invasive thing to do and I'm really sorry that I almost ruined your relationship with Seto."

Jou blushed at the thought of what Mokuba had seen, but shook off the awkward feeling. "It's OK, it wasn't all your fault. There was something else behind that too," Jou replied cryptically.

"Oh? What was that?" Mokuba asked.

"That is between me and Seto," Jou put his finger to the side of his nose and winked.

"OK, I won't pry," Mokuba said.

"Good," Seto said as they entered the game room. "I'm glad that you are learning your lesson. Now, seeing as Jou is our guest here this evening, he'll get first pick of the games."

"All right!" Jou exclaimed exuberantly, wasting no time in making his way over to the stack of games. Soon all three boys were playing the latest racing game and having a marvellous time. Before they knew it, it was dinner time, then afterwards Mokuba was sent to finish his homework while Jou accompanied Seto to his room.

"Are the cameras really off this time?" Jou asked Seto with a shaky smile.

"Of course," Seto replied smoothly. He gestured towards his desk and a pile of cameras that were piled on the floor next to it. "As you can see, I have removed them all so there is no chance of anyone snooping now."

"Oh good," Jou said with some relief. He knew that he wouldn't have been able to relax if the things had still been in place, but now that they weren't... "So, earlier in the week you said you had a video you wanted to show me?"

"Hmm, I did didn't I?" Seto said with a smirk. He guided Jonouchi towards the desk where the laptop was all set up and ready to go. He waited until Jou was settled, them grabbed the mouse and started the movie.

Jou sat there and watched, almost totally entranced by the events unfolding on the screen. He shifted in the chair as his jeans became quite a bit tighter then nearly jumped out of his skin as Seto draped himself over his shoulder. Seto reached down and palmed Jou's cloth-covered arousal. "Hot, isn't it," Seto's breath scorched hot against Jou's ear.

Jou gulped despite himself. "Yeah, I didn't realise..."

"Katsuya," Seto's breath ghosted across Jou's ear again, "Will you make love to me like that again? I've been going half insane with not being able to touch you as often as I'd like to."

"You aren't the only one," Jou said as he stopped the video. He waited for Seto to move away from him before he stood and faced him. "Don't get me wrong, I love working with you, but it's darned torture not being able to show you how I feel."

"Tell me how you feel." Seto pulled Jou into an embrace.

"I love you Seto," Jou said with feeling.

"I love you too Katsuya," Seto replied in turn as Jou pulled him down into a bruising kiss.

Much, much later found Jonouchi and Kaiba settled together in bed, snuggled close in a loving embrace. They had got through the crisis and had come out the stronger for it. However, this strength was soon to be tested...

xo xo xo xo xo xo xo

**A/N** - Once again this is a slightly longer chapter. I combined what was initially two chapters because it felt right, plus there was once again a lemon to edit out to make the chapter suitable for this site under the M (**16+**) rating.

Also as I'm sure you may be able to tell by now, I love anything to do with reincarnation and the best thing is that in YuGiOh it's canon! That has to be one of the reasons why I love it so much. ^_^

However, new chapters may take a little longer from now on because the next parts need a LOT of work and a fair few things need to be changed before I'll feel comfortable posting them.

Thank you for reading.


	8. Chapter 8

**Disclaimer:** I do not own YuGiOh!. That pleasure belongs to Kazuki Takahashi. I also do not own Father Ted. That belongs to Hat Trick and Channel 4. This is solely written for fun and not for profit.

**A/N** - Why in hell is FFN removing the spaces behind italics when I put the text into the document manager? Finding them all can be a right pain.

xo xo xo xo xo xo xo

Life went on pretty much as normal for the next few weeks, or at least as normal as it could get for the CEO and his assistant. Christmas passed without incident and the new Year was ushered in with the usual fanfare. Jou and Seto still kept their relationship well under wraps, although Jou intended to tell his mother once his 18th birthday had passed and he had left his father's 'care' just so that she wouldn't find it out from other sources in the event that the information leaked, which they both knew would eventually be inevitable. He couldn't, however, resist telling his sister on one of the rare occasions that she had visited. Shizuka, to his relief, had squealed, given him a hug that had taken his breath away and her full support.

Yugi was silently supportive and Ryou, although Jou suspected that he knew _something_, never said a word. However, with Seto's permission, Jou had invited Yugi and Ryou to the mansion to meet Mrs Doyle and the Japanese teens had watched with utter bemusement as those from the British Isles got on like a house on fire.

As for Honda, he remained pretty much clueless and Otogi was always looking for a chance to find out what was really going on between Jonouchi and Seto. In fact everything was going far _too_ well, which is why it should not have been a surprise when everything seemed to go wrong all at once.

On that fateful day, Jou bounced into the CEO's office at the Kaiba Corporation building. "Hey Seto," he chirped happily, "would it be OK if Mokuba sent some of those pictures he keeps taking of us to Shizuka?"

Seto gave him a sharp look. "You told your sister about us?"

"Well, yeah," Jou said. "She IS my sister..."

"Are you sure that's safe and shouldn't you wait just a couple more weeks just to be sure?" Jou's 18th birthday was shortly coming up, and although neither of them had any illusions that all their problems would magically disappear, it was nonetheless an event that would make things a lot safer for all of them.

"Seto, she's my sister," Jou pointed out, trying not to sound exasperated. "I may as well ask you if Mokuba were safe and you know that she's the only member of my family that gives a crap about me. You weren't available last time she visited and she just wants to see if we look as cute together as she imagines we do."

Seto scowled a touch at being thought of as 'cute'. "It's not really the same thing," He pointed out. "Mokuba lives here with me while Shizuka lives with your mother. How do you know that your mother won't find them and what would she do if she did?" Jou had not mentioned his mother often, but what he had said about her and how she didn't seem to like him much was not good.

"Shizu knows how to be discreet," Jou replied earnestly. "She knows how important it is that no one finds out so she won't spread it around and she knows how to avoid issues with my mother." He looked hopefully at Seto, "Please? She really wants to see us together and she hardly ever gets to come over here so..." He turned on the pleading eyes full force.

Seto sighed, knowing that he couldn't win this one. "Alright, you can send her the pictures, but for safety make sure that Mokuba uses the courier company that Kaiba Corporation employs to send all of it's sensitive documents."

"Thanks Seto," Jou said gratefully, giving him a quick squeeze. "I'll go and call Mokuba now!" He dashed over to his own desk, Seto watching with amusement as he went. He shook his head and smiled as he went back to his own work. After all, whatever made Jou happy made him happy too and if Jou said that he could trust his sister and as long as the photos were sent safely via his secure courier, then who was he to argue?

xo xo xo xo xo xo xo

Once he'd received the phone call from Jou, Mokuba wasted no time in starting to print out photos and arrange them in an album, Noa helping him to choose the best shots. "Hey Mokuba," Noa said after a few moments, "Do you think we should include this sequence?"

Mokuba took a long look at the four photos that Noa was showing on the screen. They showed Seto and Jonouchi on the Saturday afternoon that Mokuba had caught them making out in the office. Jou was clearly in control of what was occurring between them and the last picture showed both participants quite dishevelled with their clothes obviously loosened. Once Noa had helped Mokuba to edit the bruises that Jou had acquired the night before out of the picture it had become a favourite sequence of Jou's and he'd had a set framed and placed on his bedside table for the occasions that he stayed over. Seto had been a bit annoyed that Mokuba had printed them out, but when Jou had shown how pleased he was he had decided not to make an issue out of it.

"Hmm, I don't see why not," Mokuba mused. "They aren't explicit or anything. Yeah, let's add them."

Noa complied and shortly Mokuba was arranging those photos as the final four in the album. He quickly sealed the album into the package it would be posted in and addressed it to Shizuka.

"OK, Noa, I'm off to the couriers to get this sent. I won't be long," Mokuba said as he dashed out of the room. He would have to be quick if he were to get to the couriers before their main office closed for the day. Luckily he made it with a few minutes to spare and soon the package was booked in and ready to go. Mokuba thanked the receptionist and made to leave only to do a double take. It had only been for a split second, but he thought he'd seen Honda out the back, but as soon as he'd taken his second look there had been no sign of him. He shrugged it off as his mind playing tricks on him and left to go back home.

xo xo xo xo xo xo xo

"Hey Honda," Ito, the shift manager called over once Mokuba had gone," I got a job for you."

Honda groaned, "You do know that I'm supposed to be clocking off in a minute don't you?" he pointed out.

"Yeah, I know, but young Kaiba was in with a rush job and we really don't want to upset the Kaibas," Ito explained. "I wouldn't normally ask, but you are the only one here right now and I'll make it worth your while."

"OK, I'll do it," Honda said with a grin at the thought of some extra cash. "Where am I going?" His eyes widened as he heard his destination. What on earth was Mokuba doing sending stuff to Jonouchi's sister – and by courier no less.'

"Is there some kind of problem?" Ito asked as he took in Honda's shocked face.

"No, no, not at all," Honda said as he waved his hands in denial. "Just wondering why Mokuba would be sending stuff to Jou's sister is all. Not that it's any of my business," he added quickly.

"No it isn't," Ito said with a look at Honda that spoke volumes. "Anyhow, since you're doing me a favour I'll let you go home once you've delivered that there package. You can bring the signature slip in when you start your shift on Monday, OK?"

"Thank you sir," Honda bowed before making his way out. He placed the package in his backpack, picked up his motorcycle and before very long he was parked up outside the Black Crown game shop. He headed in just as Otogi was making ready to close the store for the evening.

"Hey lover, good to see you," Otogi said with a smile as Honda approached him.

"Good to see you too," Honda replied, "I'm really sorry, but I can't stop. Ito sent me out on a last minute job. Gotta take a package to Shizuka of all people."

"Really," Otogi said with a raised eyebrow. "Who is sending stuff to Jou's sister and does he know about it?"

"That's the funny thing," Honda said. "It's from Mokuba, so yeah, I'd say that Jou probably knows."

"Oh," Otogi feigned nonchalance. "So... do you have time to come up for a drink or something before you have to go?" He really wanted to get a look in that package in case there was something he could use inside, but he knew that he'd have to do it without Honda's knowledge. Hopefully he'd get a chance if he could delay him for a short while.

"Yeah, that sounds good," Honda said with some relief, "I didn't get time to have one earlier." He followed Otogi up to his apartment above the shop.

"Are you sure you won't you get into trouble for taking too long?" Otogi asked.

"Nah. If there's a query over it I'll tell him the traffic was bad or something, or I'll just avoid that altogether by asking Shizuka to mark an earlier time." Honda dropped his backpack by the chair as he sat down, missing the curious glances that Otogi kept sending in it's direction.

Half an hour later, Honda had been both fed and watered and was making ready to go. "I'll just nip to the bathroom then I'll be off," he said as he headed towards the smallest room.

"Sure," Otogi said realising that this was his chance as he took the cups and plates back into the kitchen. He simply dumped the items in the sink, quickly re-emerging from the room and heading over to Honda's backpack. He was genuinely curious over what Mokuba could be sending to Shizuka and he knew he would only have a scant couple of minutes while Honda was in the bathroom to find out.

He pulled out then carefully unsealed the package and pulled out what looked to be a small photograph album. His eyes widened in surprise as he opened it and looked at the contents. It would seem that Kaiba and his dog were doing a fair bit more than just working together!

Quickly making a decision, he pulled out a sharp knife and carefully cut out the last four most incriminating photographs, making it look at a casual glance like they had never been there and slipped the pictures under a cushion. Then he sealed everything back up as it had been and placed the package back in the backpack just as Honda was returning from the bathroom. Thinking quickly he walked towards Honda and held out the bag. "Here you go love," he said as he handed it over.

"Thanks," Honda said as he took the bag and gave Otogi a quick kiss. "I'll be back in a couple of hours at the latest."

"OK then, see you later." Otogi managed to contain himself until Honda was out of sight and then an evil grin crossed his face. Oh, this was going to be good.

xo xo xo xo xo xo xo

Meanwhile Noa, having got a little bored while Mokuba was away, had decided to go and look in on what Seto was doing. As he hacked into the feed of one of the security cameras in the office, he saw Jonouchi tell Seto he was leaving to go and spend the evening at Yugi's. Noa gave a smile as Jou gave Seto a kiss on the cheek before he left. He was happy that his adoptive brother had found someone. After what Gozaburo had put him through, it was the very least that he deserved.

He fought down a pang of regret at the thought of his deceased father. Once Mokuba had re-awakened his program he'd got to wondering whether it was his death that had caused Gozaburo to become the way he was, but after researching the matter he had quickly come to the conclusion that the man had always been an evil bastard and if Noa had lived then he was sure that he would have been carefully moulded into the tyrannical man's image. In fact, from what Mokuba had told him his previous incarnation had almost become exactly like that, only redeeming himself at the very end as he stopped the spirit of Kaiba Gozaburo from destroying everyone.

He was so caught up in his introspection that he failed to notice that he'd given away that someone was watching when he'd moved the security camera to get a better angle and Seto had taken advantage of his distraction to detect the intrusion and quarantine it. He started in shock as what was in effect a virtual cage began to enclose him and he made to get away, but it was already far too late and he was well and truly caught. He looked up to find himself 'face to face' with Seto himself through the webcam of Seto's computer. "S... Seto," Noa stuttered, suddenly terrified. Seto had the power to delete him and he couldn't help but fervently wish that Mokuba or Jou were here.

"Hmm, I'd been wondering what had been nosing around my systems recently." Seto feigned nonchalance although Noa could tell that underneath that cool exterior that Seto was more than a little annoyed. "So tell me, how long have you been hiding in my systems?"

"I..." He swallowed as he gathered his thoughts, "Mokuba found my backup files about six months ago..."

"Mokuba did this?" Seto raised an eyebrow. "He's always far too trusting. So, give me a reason why I shouldn't just delete you right now?"

"I'm not the same Noa that you knew before!" Noa blurted out. "I'm a backup from when Gozaburo first uploaded my mind into the computer, from before he became bitter and twisted. I'll never do what he did, I couldn't, I swear!" He sighed as Seto remained silent. "Even Jonouchi said that I deserved a second chance," he said sadly.

"Jou knew about you?" Seto asked sharply.

"Yes he did, but..." Noa found himself without a voice as Seto muted the sound.

"Never mind, I don't want to hear about that right now," Seto pulled out his cell phone and dialled a number. "Mokuba. Come to my office. Now!" He barked this down the phone then hung up before Mokuba could reply. He sat back in his chair and regarded the scared looking virtual boy on his screen sourly. He thought he'd seen the last of Noa, but to find him hiding in his systems was an unpleasant surprise and the fact that neither his brother or his lover had told him was unforgivable. Mokuba – and later on, Jonouchi - had a lot of explaining to do.

xo xo xo xo xo xo xo

Mokuba winced at Seto's tone as the rapid beeps came that indicated that the other had terminated the call. Whatever had upset his brother like that could not be good and he began to rack his brain for something he could have done to upset him in such a way. He slowly started making his way towards the front door, not really wanting to face his brother when he was upset like this but knowing that putting it off would not make things any better. What was worse was that Noa didn't seem to be around to give him encouragement like he would normally do.

At that thought he came to a sudden halt. Something else that he'd been putting off was telling Seto about Noa. Jou had reminded him several times that he needed to come clean but somehow the time had never seemed to be right. He gasped as he also realised that he hadn't heard from Noa since he'd got back from the couriers and although that wasn't particularly unusual, he couldn't help but worry. Seto was a genius after all, and he was bound to find out eventually

As the thought that Seto might have discovered Noa on his own crossed his mind he broke into a run towards the waiting limo. He just hoped that if his suspicions were correct that Seto hadn't summarily deleted him. The thought of never seeing his friend again was something that he could not bear and didn't want to contemplate. If Seto had deleted Noa then he would _never _forgive him!

"Kaiba Corporation and step on it!" Mokuba barked at the poor driver as he threw himself into the waiting car. The man blanched then wasted no time in responding. What the Kaiba brothers wanted, the Kaiba brothers got and although it was unusual for the younger to take this kind of tone, he held no illusions that he was not just as ruthless and powerful as his older brother when he wanted to be.

He peeled out of the drive, determined to get the boy to KC as quickly as possible. He was sure that his job would depend upon it!

xo xo xo xo xo xo xo

Back in the office at the Kaiba Corporation building, Kaiba Seto sat and waited patiently for Mokuba to arrive. He turned the computer monitor off as he could not bear to look at Noa as he 'sat' there awaiting his fate. He was considering whether to call Jou and demand that he come back to the office when he was disturbed by the bleeping of the intercom. Kaiba sighed as he pressed the button. "What?" he snapped irritably.

"Mr Kaiba," Saya's concerned voice emanated from the speaker, "you may wish to turn on the television. Channel Seven are running a story that you really need to see."

Seto ignored the worried tone in Saya's voice. "Why should I turn on that tawdry gossip channel?" he asked shortly.

"They... they have some pictures of you and Mr. Jonouchi, sir," Saya informed him shakily.

"What?" he exclaimed in shock, cutting off the intercom and hurriedly turning on the TV that was situated on the wall. He watched in horror as they did indeed have photographs of himself with Jonouchi playing on the screen. They were quite explicit as to who was in control and Seto recalled that this was Jonouchi's favourite sequence of photographs, but how could the news channels have got hold of them and more importantly, _who_ could possibly have leaked them? He really did not need this on top of the issues with Noa and Mokuba and only one thought crossed his mind.

How could the mutt have betrayed him like this?

xo xo xo xo xo xo xo

**A/N**- This chapter is a touch shorter than the previous ones, but it really was the best place to stop. This is also the part where the story actually began in my head. The whole story was built around the premise that somehow photos of Jou and Seto got leaked to the press and this was Not A Good Thing.

To be honest, I had considered ending the story at the end of chapter 7. Everything wrapped up fairly well and I'm not convinced that this next part works _quite_ so well, but I guess that because I wrote it, I'll edit it and post it. :P

Thank you for reading (and reviewing.)


	9. Chapter 9

**Disclaimer:** I do not own YuGiOh!. That pleasure belongs to Kazuki Takahashi. I also do not own Father Ted. That belongs to Hat Trick and Channel 4. This is solely written for fun and not for profit.

xo xo xo xo xo xo xo

Jou sighed as he reached his front door. He just needed to get changed and pick up a couple of things then he'd be off to Yugi's for the rest of the evening. However, as he opened the door he could hear the sound of the TV drifting through from the living room and he grimaced as he realised that this meant his dad was at home, something that he hadn't been expecting at this time on a Saturday night.

Suddenly, he stopped dead in the doorway as he registered just what was being discussed on the box. He raised horrified eyes to meet his dad's angry ones as the man got up from his chair, then without a second thought, he bolted.

"Get back here, ya fag!" Jonouchi senior yelled as he gave chase, but Jou had youth on his side, hadn't abused his body with drink and cigarettes and as such he could easily outdistance the older man. Once he was well away from the old apartment building and he could no longer hear the old man's shouts, he paused for breath, concealing himself in a disused entryway. He pulled out his Kaiba Corporation issue cellphone and hit speed dial 1, putting him directly through to Seto's personal phone.

"Jonouchi, you have a nerve calling me after what you have done," Kaiba's cool and controlled tones came through the speaker as he answered Jonouchi's call.

"What?" Jou was genuinely confused, then threw it off to deal with later. He didn't have time to be confused right now, not with the trouble he was in. "Seto, I need..."

"I don't care what you need," Seto snarled. "You lied to me about Noa and you let those photos get out."

"But..."

"I don't have time to deal with you right now, as I'm sure you'll understand," Seto all but hissed, "but we _will _talk about this later, make no mistake."

"But Seto..." Jou started, then began to swear out loud as he found himself talking to a dead line. He quickly weighed up his options. His dad's homophobic friends and drinking buddies - something Jou knew there were sure to be a lot more of now that the man had more of his money to flash around - had probably seen that broadcast by now and his dad had probably called them out to help look for him.

Knowing what his dad's older friends were like, they probably already had the places he was likely to go to covered, so heading to either Yugi's or the Kaiba Corporation building was completely out of the question. Honda and Otogi were supposed to be going out tonight and Anzu was at her Saturday night dance class – not that he would have wanted to get her involved in something like this anyway. No, as was usual when he found himself in trouble, he was on his own.

Knowing that he was likely to be fairly short on time, he made a decision and decided to head towards the railway station. Hailing a taxi to take him out of the city was too dangerous as odds were that one of his dad's new drinking buddies would either be driving or would have been in touch with the other drivers to ask them to keep an eye out for him. With the remaining options being either bus or train, he chose train as the safer option, moving quickly but circumspectly in the direction of the station. As he moved, he opened his phone once again and called Yugi.

"Hey Yug'," he said as the diminutive teen answered his call. "I don't think I'm going to be able to make it over tonight. I'm in a bit of trouble and I'm going to have to get out of town for a while."

"Jou, what's wrong?" Yugi sounded worried. "What kind of trouble and can't Kaiba help you?"

"Not this time Yug'. He doesn't want to know. He's blaming me..." For the first time, Jou's chest constricted with pain and his eyes burned a little with tears of grief.

"You aren't making any sense, Jou," Yugi said. "Come over here and we can talk about it."

"I'm sorry Yugi, I can't do that." Jou choked out, "but if you turn on the news I'm sure you'll understand what's wrong. I'll call you when I get someplace safe." He hung up without letting Yugi say anything else and concentrated on moving past the pain in his chest and making it safely to his destination. He only hoped that Seto would come around once things had calmed down a bit.

xo xo xo xo xo xo xo

Seto eyed the phone with disgust as he terminated the call from Jonouchi. He didn't have time to contemplate that feeling, which felt suspiciously like disgust towards himself at the way he'd summarily dismissed the other, as Mokuba burst in through the door.

"Seto, what's wrong? Why did you call me like that?" Mokuba asked in a voice laced with panic.

"Ah, Mokuba," Seto turned a cool expression onto his younger brother. "I want you to explain to me just what Noa is doing inside my computer system?" He pressed a button to turn on the monitor and Noa appeared on the screen.

Mokuba visibly sagged with relief. "Oh, you haven't deleted him. Thank goodness."

"No, I haven't... yet." Seto said, only to be surprised as an outraged expression appeared on Mokuba's face.

"No! You can't do that!" Mokuba cried out. "If you delete him I will _never _forgive you!"

Seto was taken aback by the vehemence of Mokuba's reaction. "He means that much to you?" he asked with a raised eyebrow.

"Yes, he's my best friend," Mokuba said, tears standing in the corners of his eyes. "He keeps me company when you can't be around or when you are working late nights." He turned an earnest gaze onto his brother. "He is not the same Noa that tried to destroy us in the virtual world and even THAT Noa changed his mind and saved us all in the end." He subsided and sniffed a little. "Please Seto, you _can't_."

Seto sighed. He couldn't take away something that clearly meant so much to his younger brother. "Will you vouch for him?" he asked.

"Yes, I will," Mokuba said confidently. "Jonouchi and Mrs Doyle will too."

Seto raised an eyebrow again. "Did everyone except me know about this?" he asked a little more forcefully than he had intended.

"It's not like that," Mokuba explained quickly. "He approached Mrs Doyle because she seemed lonely. Jonouchi found out... on the night we hacked into your video surveillance system." He looked down at his feet in shame at the reminder of that time. "He made me promise to tell you about Noa but the time never seemed to be right." He looked up again. "I'm sorry Seto."

Seto hugged Mokuba then, ruffling his hair in a reassuring manner before he turned back to the computer and turned the speakers on. "Noa?" Seto intoned flatly.

"Yes Seto," Noa said with just a hint of fear. He knew that his adoptive brother's next words would seal his fate and even with Mokuba present there was no guarantee that Seto would stay his hand.

"It would appear that you have a number of people who will vouch for you," Seto said coolly with more than a touch of irritation evident in his tone. "I'm not ready to trust you just yet, so I'll be keeping a close watch on you."

"You mean you're not going to delete me?" Noa asked, his face lighting up.

"No, I won't," Seto said with a small smile. "Welcome back to the family, Noa."

"Thank you Seto," Noa said with obvious relief, sending a massive smile to Mokuba who was grinning behind Seto, "but... what are you going to do about those photographs?"

"You saw that?" Seto asked.

"Yes," Noa replied. "You may have turned the speakers and monitor off, but you left the webcam and microphone on. I saw and heard everything.

"Seto, what's this about photos?" Mokuba asked with confusion.

Seto sighed and turned the TV back on to channel 7. Mokuba watched with growing horror as the photos were shown one after another, over and over again as the newscasters speculated about them in the background.

"How..." Mokuba gasped, "how did they get hold of those?"

"I have no idea, although I suspect that Jonouchi has to be involved somewhere," Seto said with a scowl.

"Hang on," Mokuba said, "these were included in the album that we put together to send to Shizuka."

"We?" Seto asked.

"Noa helped me," Mokuba said without hesitation, "but do you think that's where the leak came from?" he asked. "I mean, I can't see Shizuka doing something like that, but..."

"It's a possibility to consider," Seto said. "I take it that you did use the courier I specified?"

"Yes, of course," Mokuba replied, then he gasped and put a hand to his mouth as a thought occurred to him. "Oh..."

"What is it, Mokie?" Noa asked.

"I thought I saw Honda when I was at the courier's office," Mokuba explained, "but it was only a glimpse and then he wasn't there. I thought that I was mistaken and thought no more of it, but now I'm not so sure."

"So you are saying that fin-head may have been responsible?" Seto asked pointedly.

"I... I really can't say for sure," Mokuba replied. "I'll call Shizuka and find out."

"You do that," Seto said, knowing that it would be better if his brother talked to the girl. He picked up the remote and muted the sound on the television as Mokuba picked up the handset and dialled Shizuka's number.

"Kawai residence" a female voice answered the call.

"Hello, is Shizuka there please?" Mokuba asked courteously.

"Who is this please?"

"Kaiba Mokuba."

"Oh, you are Kaiba Seto's little brother," the woman gushed. "It's so good to hear from you..."

"Thank you Mrs. Kawai," Mokuba said with a grimace at the woman's simpering manner, "but could I please speak to Shizuka? It's kind of important."

"Oh, of course," Mrs. Kawai replied. "Shizu dear," she called, "Mokuba is on the phone for you..."

"Coming!" the muffled reply came and Mokuba could clearly hear Shizuka's footsteps as she approached the telephone. "Hello?"

"Shizuka," Mokuba said with some relief, "Did you get the photo album alright?"

"Oh yes, thank you Mokuba," she gushed. "The pictures are absolutely wonderful."

"I'm glad to hear it," he said, "but I need to ask, who delivered them?"

"Funny you should ask that," Shizuka replied, "It was Katsuya's friend Honda."

"Really?" Mokuba asked, flicking a look towards Seto. "When did he deliver them?"

"About half an hour ago," She supplied.

"Wow, it really took a while for him to get there," Mokuba observed.

"I think he must have stopped off on the way," Shizuka mused, "because he asked me to do him a favour and log the time as being earlier."

"I think we've got our possible leak," Mokuba said to his brother. "Honda did deliver the package and he was later than the recorded delivery time."

"Leak?" Shizuka asked suddenly concerned. "What do you mean, Mokuba?"

"Shizuka," Mokuba's voice was very serious, "have you seen the news recently?"

"No, should I have?" Shizuka's confusion was evident in her voice.

"Please, could you look at channel 7," Mokuba said.

"OK," She replied as she moved to switch on the set. Mokuba could tell that she had got the correct channel when he heard her gasp. "Oh Mokuba, how did they get those images?"

"That's what we are trying to find out," Mokuba said grimly. "Now, can you tell me, were there copies of those four images in the album I sent?"

"No," she replied. "This is the first time I've seen them."

"So there were empty pockets in the album?"

"No, the album was full..."

"Really?" Mokuba was shocked. "Could you tell me if there are any pockets missing then? Those photos should have been the last ones in the book."

"Just let me check," the girl replied, then the sound came of her running up to her room. She was soon back with an answer for him. "It didn't look like there were any missing at first," she said, "but looking more closely, it looks like a couple of pockets have been cut out with a sharp knife or something." She gasped, "You don't think that Honda had anything to do with this do you? I really don't think he'd do something like that to Katsuya..." she tailed off for a moment. "Is Katsuya there with you?" She asked suddenly, panic in her voice.

"Ah... no," Mokuba replied, taken aback by the ferocity of the question.

"Where is he? Do you know?" She began to sound frantic.

"What's wrong, Shizuka? You are starting to worry me."

"If... if our dad has seen those," she sobbed, "he'll kill Katsuya. He hates homosexuals and he always said that he'd kill Jou if he turned out to be a... a fag."

Mokuba gasped. "Seto, where's Jou?" he asked urgently.

"He went home before heading out to Yugi's," Seto replied. "Why?"

"Shizuka said that Jou could be in danger if his dad saw the news..."

Seto started as he recalled Jou's phone call. Thinking back on it now he realised that Jou had sounded quite desperate, but he'd cut him off without even listening to what he had to say. He pulled his own cell phone from his pocket and and speed dialled Jou's number, only to swear as the answer-phone message played.

"Seto?" Mokuba asked.

"His phone is either off or out of range," Seto said, pressing another speed dial number. "Yugi," Seto said as the call was answered, "is Jonouchi with you?" He listened as Yugi spoke then swore again. "Damn it. Sorry Yugi, I'll call you back," he said as he ended the call. Before Seto could inform the others as to what Yugi had said, Noa spoke up.

"Seto, Look at the TV. You need to turn the sound back on," Noa said, even as Mokuba found himself dealing first with a hysterically sobbing Shizuka, then with the girl's mother, then with a dead line as the woman hung up. Seto gave Noa a strange look, but dutifully turned his attention back to the television, turning pale as he took in the latest news story.

They watched with growing horror and, in Seto's case, guilt, as the report unfolded. It would seem that a rival channel's roving reporter and her cameraman had noticed Jonouchi making his way down the street and had seen the potential for a scoop given the earlier revelations. However, before they could close in and attempt to obtain an interview, they had realised that something wasn't right and that Jonouchi was being followed by several older men. The reporter, trusting her gut instinct, had been on the phone to alert the police when another man had appeared from an alleyway and dragged the teenager into it and out of sight. The cameraman had carefully moved in and recorded the scene as the police arrived and dragged the men off Jonouchi, but not before the blond teenager had taken quite a beating. The report concluded that several men had run from the scene and were currently being hunted and that Jonouchi had been taken to Domino General Hospital, but his injuries were not thought to be life threatening. Nobody had been able to reach Kaiba for comment.

"His life," Seto said quietly to himself, thinking about how Jonouchi had insisted that he had more to lose than he did. "He was talking about his life."

"Seto?" Mokuba said with some concern as his brother was now extremely pale.

"I'm fine," Seto said, pulling himself back together and crossing to the computer. He pressed several keys, freeing Noa from his virtual prison. "Noa, I want you to see if you can find out who delivered those images to Channel 7."

"I'll get right on it," Noa replied, relieved to be of use.

"Mokuba, I want you to head home," Seto instructed. "I don't know how long I'm going to be at the hospital, but you can call Shizuka back and tell her that I'll let her know about Jou's condition as soon as I get any news."

"OK, big brother," Mokuba said. He wasn't sure if he'd actually get to speak to Shizuka after her mother had hung up on him, but he would still try.

Seto nodded and then swept from the room. He acknowledged the slightly harried looking secretary as he walked through the outer office, knowing that she would be calling his car around to pick him up even as he entered the lift.

Soon he was sitting in the plush interior of the limo, privacy screen up, contemplating just how badly he'd failed Jonouchi by not listening to him. He'd promised Jou that if he ever needed help then he only had to ask, but when he had tried to call in on that promise... Damn it, he could have lost Jou forever just because he assumed that Jou was at fault with both the Noa situation and the photos coming out. He just hoped that Jou would forgive him.

Soon, the limo pulled up outside Domino General Hospital and Seto got out, only to find himself confronted by a barrage of reporters. He cursed as he pushed his way through the throng, swearing that he would have Hospital Security severely dealt with for their failure to deal with this obstruction. He shot the lone guard at the door a withering look before striding smartly to reception and demanding to know where Jonouchi was being treated. Once he had the answer he needed, the receptionist not daring to cross him, he made his way to the waiting area adjacent to the room where Jou was undergoing treatment. He was made to stay there by a stern looking nurse who told him in no uncertain terms that she would not care if he were the Emperor himself, he would stay in the waiting room until the doctor had finished attending to Jonouchi's injuries.

Knowing that, for now at least, he would not get any further, he sat down to wait, giving him time to contemplate the events of the last couple of hours. Finding out about about Noa and that Jou had kept the fact from him had hurt and no matter the reasons for it, it still hurt to some extent. Then came the leaking of those pictures and everything had quickly gone to hell.

He should never have given permission for the album to be sent, although, to be fair, he could not bring himself to blame Jou, Mokuba or Shizuka. As he knew only too well, things like that had a habit of finding their way out eventually no matter how careful you were. If only it had happened in a couple of weeks time, after the 25th and Jou's 18th birthday, then things would have been a lot easier, but sadly, Seto knew that if onlys wouldn't fix anything.

He leaned forwards, placing his head into his hands as he sat on the uncomfortable chair and sighed. He had a lot to make up for.

xo xo xo xo xo xo xo

**A/N** - Another slightly shorter chapter, but this is more the length I wanted them to be anyway, so it's all good. :P

Thank you for reading and reviewing. I appreciate every review, favourite and alert.


	10. Chapter 10

**Disclaimer:** I do not own YuGiOh!. That pleasure belongs to Kazuki Takahashi. I also do not own Father Ted. That belongs to Hat Trick and Channel 4. This is solely written for fun and not for profit.

xo xo xo xo xo xo xo

Seto didn't know how long he had been sitting in the waiting room for, when he was brought out of his contemplation by a new presence in the room.

"Kaiba," Yugi said as he walked across to where the CEO was sitting, "I came as soon as I saw the news."

"Hmm..." Was the only response Kaiba could give right then as he did not trust himself to speak. Yugi's presence had forcefully and vividly brought to mind the events of thousands of years ago and he felt a strange sense of symmetry between what had happened today and the events that had taken Jono away from Seth. However, in this lifetime Seto had the means to protect Jonouchi and he would now do whatever it took to keep him safe, whether Jou wanted him to or not.

"Jonouchi called me, you know," Yugi said. When Kaiba still did not reply he sat on the chair next to Kaiba and continued, "He said that he was in trouble and you didn't want to know."

Kaiba sighed before answering, "I... I'm not proud of that," he admitted grudgingly, not looking Yugi in the eyes. "Did he happen to tell you what kind of trouble he was in?"

"No," Yugi said, "but I can guess that it had something to do with those photos that were all over the news."

"You do understand that we were keeping our relationship quiet." That was more of a statement than a question. "I wanted it kept quiet because, as you can see from the pictures, Jou was in charge when it came to... certain aspects of our relationship. I was worried that the people I do business with would take me less seriously and see me as some kind of pushover, not to mention simply making things more complicated all around. And of course there's always the prospect that it could affect the company's bottom line." He sighed, "Jou always said that he had more to lose than I did, but until today I didn't understand exactly what it was that he was telling me."

"That he could lose his life?" Yugi stated, eyes wide.

"Exactly," Kaiba confirmed. "If I'd given the thought a little more consideration I'd probably have seen it, but I was so preoccupied with the material meaning that his true meaning completely passed me by. I wonder why he didn't just tell me..."

There was a silent contemplation for a few moments before Yugi had a question. "So, where did the TV station get the pictures from anyway?

"We are not one hundred percent sure yet," Kaiba said. "The best theory we have without talking to the people involved is that a set of photographs that Jou and Mokuba sent to Shizuka late this afternoon were intercepted somewhere between Mokuba dropping the package off at the couriers and it being delivered to Shizuka. It must have had something to do with Honda because he was the courier."

"Honda?" Yugi's eyebrows almost raised to his hairline. "I can't see Honda doing something like that to Jou. They are friends and they have been for years."

"The photos definitely came from the album that was sent to Shizuka as those four pictures had been cut out of it. Then if you add on the fact that he asked Shizuka to put an earlier time on the receipt because he was later than he should have been..."

"I wonder if he stopped off at Otogi's on the way?" Yugi interrupted. "I know they were going to go out tonight so he'd probably have stopped off to tell him in person that he might be late and you know what Otogi has been like when it comes to Jou working for you. If he knew that the package was from Jou..."

"And if Honda left it unattended for a moment..." Kaiba said, then sighed. "This is all speculation of course, but yes, it is something I could see Otogi doing. He's been trying to get one over on me for quite a while now."

The two boys sat there in the uncomfortable silence that followed, Yugi wondering what this would mean not only for Jonouchi and Kaiba, but for their group as a whole. However, the silence was broken when Seto's phone rang.

"Kaiba," Seto barked as he answered the call.

"Seto," Noa's voice came across. "I've found out who delivered the photos to Channel Seven. I hacked into their CCTV recording system and found footage of Nakamura Keiko delivering a small package within the relevant time frame."

"My old secretary?" Seto asked. "Are you sure that she is the one that delivered them?"

"Yes and I went a step further once I saw her there," Noa explained. "She is currently in the employ of The Black Crown. In fact it appears that she was on the Black Crown's payroll for the entire time she worked at Kaiba Corporation."

"So all the pieces slot together," Seto mused. "But what the hell were Human Resources doing? They are supposed to catch things like this."

"I couldn't say," Noa said carefully, "but I could look into the records of the people that should have been on top of it if you'd like?"

"You do that Noa," Seto instructed. "And thank you," he finished more gently. He hung up and turned back to Yugi. "Well, it would seem that our little theory was correct," he said. "The photos were delivered to that tawdry channel by none other than my old secretary, who was apparently being paid by Otogi the entire time that she was working for me."

"I still wonder why he would do that," Yugi mused. "And you mentioned Noa? Is that the same Noa that..."

"Yes and no," Kaiba forestalled the question. He's apparently a backup from when my adoptive father first put him in the virtual world. I only found out about him today, but apparently Jou had known for a few weeks. It's one of the things that made me... go off at him."

"And Noa's not going to attempt to destroy us all again?" Yugi asked.

"From what I've seen of him so far, no," Kaiba said, "but I plan to keep an eye on him for the foreseeable future."

"That's fair enough I guess," Yugi said. He pulled out his cellphone.

"Who are you calling?" Kaiba asked.

"I'm going to call Otogi and ask him why he did it," Yugi said with a look of determination on his face. Kaiba was about to stop him, but they were both stopped in their tracks as Honda burst through the door, making a bee-line for Kaiba with a look of rage on his face.

"You bastard!" Honda yelled as he stomped over to Kaiba and grabbed him by the collar. "I don't know what you did for Jou to end up here, but..."

"Honda, stop!" Yugi exclaimed as he tried to pull Honda's hands from the oddly quiescent CEO's collar. "Kaiba didn't do this!"

"Butt out, Yugi," Honda snarled. "You are too ready to believe the best of everyone and it has to be Kaiba's fault."

"Really," Kaiba drawled as he finally reached up and effortlessly broke Honda's grip, pushing him back hard, "I suppose it's fitting that you would blame me, especially considering that it would appear to be _your_ fault that Jou is in this situation."

"What do you mean by that?" Honda looked at Kaiba with an outraged expression on his face. "I haven't done anything."

"Except let the photos end up on television?" Kaiba's eyes narrowed. "I'm going to have your job for what you did."

"Hang on," Honda was confused, "What photos?"

Kaiba could only roll his eyes, so Yugi felt compelled to speak. "You don't know about the pictures? So how did you know that Jonouchi was here?"

"I saw Jou being put in an ambulance on a television window display while I was out with Otogi. I saw red and came straight here..." he paused, then asked again, "but what's this about photos?"

"Let's put it this way," Kaiba said with a sneer, "between Mokuba dropping of the package at the couriers and it being delivered to Jou's sister, four photographs showing Jonouchi and myself in a... compromising position... were cut from the album contained in said package and they wound up on channel seven for the whole world to see. As a result, it would appear that Jou's dad and a few... friends... decided to try and kill him."

"But I never opened that parcel," Honda protested.

"Did you leave it unattended at any time?" Yugi asked.

"No, I don't think so," Honda said as he searched his memories. His eyes widened. "Oh, hang on. I probably left my bag while I visited the bathroom before I left The Black Crown..." he tailed off as he realised that this was probably not a good thing to admit, but then he saw Kaiba and Yugi give each other a significant look. "Ryuji wouldn't do that, would he?"

"Considering that the photos were delivered to Channel Seven by someone currently in Otogi's employ, then yes, I very much think that he would," Kaiba snapped.

"No..." Honda went pale and slumped into a chair. "Why would he do that?"

"Your boyfriend has been trying to get one over on me a while now," Kaiba said with a wave of his hand. "I couldn't speculate as to any motive other than that."

"Are you sure that there's no other motivation?" Yugi asked.

"Well, that is quite a big deal," Kaiba explained. "This could cause a lot of trouble with my directors and any fallout could potentially set Kaiba Corporation back quite a bit..."

"Oh, you and your precious company," Honda sneered.

"Imbecile," Kaiba sneered right back. "Even a small setback could mean cut backs and job losses. Thousands of people's livelihoods depend on how Kaiba Corporation performs." Kaiba began to pace. "That he would even go so far as to drag his so-called friends into this... Look at the result! Katsuya could have been killed... I might never have seen him again..." Abruptly, he slumped into a chair and dropped his head into his hands.

"He really means a lot to you, doesn't he?" Honda stated sympathetically. Kaiba didn't answer, not trusting that his voice wouldn't crack and he felt that he'd given enough away for the moment. "Well," Honda continued, "for what it's worth, I'm sorry. I never meant for this to happen." He sighed. "I'll hand in my resignation at the courier's first thing on Monday and I'm going to see what Otogi has to say for himself, although I can't say that I'll be staying with him after the mess he has caused."

"I'm sorry Honda," Yugi said with feeling, knowing how much Otogi meant to his friend even though they hadn't been together for all that long.

"No, it's better to find out sooner rather than later," Honda said sadly as he made to get up and leave.

"Aren't you going to wait and see how Jou is?" Yugi asked with some surprise.

Honda shot a look over at Kaiba. "I don't know," he said.

"You should stay," Kaiba said after a moment. "If only to explain to Jonouchi exactly what your role was in all of this."

"I guess you have a point," Honda said as he sat back down. "I'll stay."

"Honda, what is Otogi doing right now?" Yugi asked, Kaiba sitting back up as he spoke.

"I don't know," Honda admitted. "To start with I was surprised that he didn't follow me, but now I hope he doesn't have the nerve to show up here."

"No kidding," Kaiba agreed. "If he were to show his face here right now, I don't think I'd be able to stop myself..." All three teens started as the door to the waiting room opened, only for them to jump out of their seats as the nurse entered the room.

"You can go through and see Mr. Jonouchi now," she informed them with a smile. "He should also be discharged shortly."

Kaiba turned to Honda and Yugi. "Do you mind if I have a couple of minutes first?" he asked.

"Sure, go ahead Kaiba," Yugi said, sitting back down again. Honda gave him a suspicious look, but then nodded and sat back down. Kaiba left the room, anxious to see Jonouchi and hoping that he could put things right.

xo xo xo xo xo xo xo

Jonouchi sighed as the doctor finished setting his arm in plaster and left him to his thoughts. He'd seen the news properly now, not just the few snatched sentences he'd heard before he'd bolted from his apartment and he now understood why Seto was so upset. Finding out about Noa must have been the cherry on the cake and it was no wonder that Seto had cut him off.

He also felt at least somewhat responsible for this mess. It was fairly obvious, given that he'd asked Mokuba to send those pictures to Shizuka, that a leak must have happened somewhere along the line. He should have insisted that his sister waited for a couple more weeks until he'd turned 18, just as Kaiba had suggested when he'd first run the idea past him. If only both he and his sister could have had a little more patience, then this might never have happened.

"Mr. Jonouchi," the nurse said as she entered the room, "It seems that there are some people waiting here to see you. Would you like me to send them in?"

"Sure," Jou said, watching listlessly as the woman left the room. He supposed, assuming that the 'people' weren't social workers, that Yugi would be here, probably Honda too if he'd seen the news. His friends were better than nothing, but who he really wanted to see right now was Seto. He sighed again as he supposed that Seto would be too busy handling the fall out from this mess to come and see him, especially as he was the person that had caused the trouble in the first place. He shook his head and pulled himself back together. It wouldn't do for the others to see how upset he currently was.

He steeled himself for Yugi's reaction as the door began to open. Yugi was well meaning and most of the time he had a level head, but sometimes he could get just a little over-emotional. But then he let out a gasp as someone he wasn't expecting to see entered the room.

"Seto..." he blurted, then he looked down at his chest as Seto closed the door behind him. "I let you down. I'm sorry."

Seto paused as he took in Jou's physical state. He obviously had a broken arm and a black eye along with a few other bumps and scrapes. Not for the first time, Kaiba thanked heavens that the reporter that had been passing by had a level head and a sense of morality. He knew that certain others would have simply filmed everything for the shock value, never caring about the fate of the victim.

Seto couldn't do anything about Jou's physical injuries, but he could try and do something to alleviate his emotional state. "Jou, it's not your fault," he said gently.

"Yes, it is," Jou insisted. "If I hadn't been so impatient and had waited to send the pictures..."

"It's just one of those things," Seto waved it off. "We both know that it would have got out eventually and I'm more concerned over whether you can forgive me for not helping you when you needed it."

"It's OK, Seto, I know you had a lot on your plate," Jou said.

"No, it's not OK," Seto insisted. "I promised that if you needed help then I would be there for you, yet when you needed me I dismissed you without listening." He stepped over towards Jou with an uncharacteristically distraught expression on his face. "I... I could have lost you, Katsuya. I'm so sorry."

Jou looked up in surprise, then opened his arms, realising that Seto needed comfort just as much as he did, but Seto stopped short of hugging Jou as he gave a pained wince.

"What is it? Seto asked.

"I... have a few bruised ribs, that's all," Jou replied evasively. Seto frowned at this, intending to demand that Jonouchi tell him the full extent of his injuries, but he didn't have time to ask as as there was a knock on the door and he found himself moving to one side as Yugi and Honda came in, obviously having been too impatient to wait any longer.

"Hey guys," Jou said with false cheer as they came in. "What's up?"

Yugi launched himself across the room, hugging Jou around the waist, pulling away as he felt Jou wince slightly. "Are you alright?" He asked, tears standing at the corners of his eyes.

"I'm OK," Jou reassured his friend. "I just got a broken arm and a few scrapes and bruises." He brandished his cast to demonstrate. "Really, it could have been a whole lot worse."

"Jou," Honda spoke up hesitantly.

"What is it, Hon'?" Jou replied with more levity than he was feeling. "And why the long face, bud?"

"I'm sorry."

"What for?" Jou asked with some confusion.

"It's partially my fault that you're here," Honda said, glancing at Kaiba before continuing quickly. "I was the courier that took the pictures to Shizuka, but I stopped off on the way to explain to Otogi that I was going to be a bit late for our evening out. He must have opened the package and cut the pictures out of the album while I was in the bathroom." He looked Jou I the eyes. "I trusted him, Jou. I feel so stupid."

"Hon', buddy, don't beat yourself up over it too much," Jou said. "You didn't have any reason not to trust him and you didn't have any idea that he was going to do something like this."

"I shouldn't have left the package though," Honda insisted.

"Maybe not," Jou agreed, "but everyone makes mistakes. No, I lay the blame for this squarely at Otogi's feet. After all, he didn't _have _to go this far."

"You are being very forgiving," Seto spoke up, bringing Jou's attention back to him. "Do you think you could extend a little of that forgiveness to me?"

"Seto," Jou smiled up at the taller boy, realising that he hadn't had chance to say the words yet, "I understand that you had a lot on your plate all of a sudden. I'll forgive you for that, but just tell me one thing."

"What is it that you need to know?"

"Just tell me that you didn't delete Noa, please?"

"No, I didn't" Seto confirmed. "He's actually been a big help during all of this."

"Oh, thank goodness." Jou sagged with relief and Seto once again wondered at Jou's capacity for putting other people before himself. "I'm sorry I didn't tell you straight away, but..."

Seto put a finger to Jou's lips, effectively silencing him. "I understand, Jou, I really do." He carefully pulled the smaller teen towards him and enveloped him into a gentle hug.

The click of a shutter brought them back to themselves. Seto looked up just in time to get a flash in the eyes, then the paparazzi who had sneaked in to capture the moment ran as he tried to make good his escape.

"God damn it!" Seto exclaimed as he blinked harshly. "The security in this place is fucking laughable." He pulled out his cell phone and started barking instructions to his own security staff, who were always _somewhere _close by, to apprehend the papparazi and delete the photographs before they could be published. There had been enough exposure of their relationship for one day and he had no doubts at all that his wishes would be carried out.

While Seto was occupied, this gave Honda and Yugi chance to get to Jou. "Are you two going to be alright?" Yugi asked with some worry.

"Yeah, I think we will," Jou said. "We still need to have a good long talk though."

"So... you and him..." Honda couldn't finish that sentence.

"Yeah, Hon'. Sorry that I didn't tell you," Jou said apologetically.

"Nah, that's fine. But... how long has this been going on for?" Honda wondered.

"Well, we first admitted that we liked each other when the principal sent us out to spend the day together," Jou explained, "but we didn't do anything about it for several weeks. We actually decided to give it a go just before the last time we spent the day at Kaiba Land." The other two were silent as they thought about just how long Jou had kept this a secret. "So," Jou continued, "what are you going to do about Otogi, Hon'?"

Honda was momentarily taken aback by the question. "I don't know really," he said with an air of defeat, "but I don't think I can be with him after this." He looked at Jou. "But really I should be asking you that question."

"I haven't had time to think about it," Jou mused. "I'll have to talk to Seto about it later, but I wouldn't be surprised if he's already got something in mind."

"Well, I'd better get going," Honda said. "I'm going to have to find a new job so I'd better go and start looking."

"What do you need to find a new job for?" Jou asked.

"Hello?" Honda said incredulously, "I fucked up. It's at least partially my fault that you're in this state no matter how you dress it up. I already told Kaiba that I'd hand in my resignation and I'm sure that they'd sack me anyway once they figured out my role in all this mess." He shook his head, "No, I have to take responsibility." He looked at Jou who was watching him with an unreadable expression on his face. "I'll see you later, bud. You too Yugi. Give my regards to Kaiba when he gets off the phone." With that, Honda took his leave.

"Wow, Otogi really has managed to mess things up for everyone, including himself," Yugi said. "From what I could tell, he really did think a lot of Honda."

"Good," Seto said, coming back after finishing his phone call. "The imbecile should have thought his actions through before doing something like this. It's only fitting that it should come back to bite him in the ass."

"I'd like to be a fly on the wall when they have that conversation," Jou said with a small grin, then he frowned. "The bastard has really fucked things up for me though."

"What do you mean, Jou?" Yugi asked with a concerned look on his face.

"Well, now that my dad is out of the picture, Social Services will be coming in to ship me out of here."

"What? Why would they do that?" Yugi asked in syrprise.

"It's partially because I used to be in a gang," Jou explained. "I saw it happen to a couple of other gang members, although they were a little younger than I am now. It might not have been an issue, but there were a couple of people in the department that made no secret of the fact that they utterly hated my guts and they made it pretty clear that it was either stay with my dad or get sent away." He let out a sigh, "Even though it's only a couple of weeks until I turn 18, I know they'll take the opportunity to try and ship me out. They're just spiteful like that."

"Why didn't you ask someone for help?" Yugi asked.

"Who could I ask?" Jou shrugged. "These were the people who were supposed to be helping me, but they were doing anything but and it wasn't something I could involve anyone else in. There were a couple of police officers that started to look out for me when I got out of the gang, but even they have to pretty much do as they're told."

"Kaiba, is there anything _you_ can do?" Yugi wanted to know.

"I do have something in mind," Kaiba replied. Ever since Jou had told him about the policy of shipping 'troublemakers' out, something hadn't sat right and it was fairly obvious that this was nowhere near normal procedure. However, he didn't want to say anything right now in case someone was listening in and he tipped his hand. "Rest assured that I shall do my best to keep Jonouchi in Domino." He would make sure of it and in the unlikely event that they did manage to send Jou away, he'd make sure that they would regret it.

"Oh good," Yugi said. "If it's you saying it, I know you will."

"So..." Jou broke into the exchange, "is everything sorted out now? I'd really like to get out of here." He didn't add that he wanted to be gone and safely back at the Kaiba mansion before any Social Workers could show up. Indeed, he was surprised that they weren't already here, but then he supposed that even in a corrupt organisation, assembling the paperwork would take time. The fact that it was a Saturday night was only likely to extend the time that such things took.

"Yes, we can go now," Kaiba replied. "Do you need a lift, Yugi?" he offered.

"Yes please," Yugi accepted the offer gratefully and the three of them made their way to the limo which, this time, was parked at the rear entrance, thus avoiding the media spotlight, something that was quite important if things were to work in their favour.

Still, the first step of keeping Jonouchi safe had been achieved by getting him out of the hospital, but Seto wouldn't rest easy until he had put his plan in motion and sorted the problem out once and for all.

xo xo xo xo xo xo xo

**A/N** - I've looked over this chapter a lot as it needed a fair bit of work (just as the remaining ones do) and I think I've managed to make it work. (If anyone thinks it's bad now, you should have seen it before I started fixing it up!)

Thank you for reading. ^_^

(ETA - bloody italics. *sigh*)


	11. Chapter 11

**Disclaimer:** I do not own YuGiOh!. That pleasure belongs to Kazuki Takahashi. I also do not own Father Ted. That belongs to Hat Trick and Channel 4. This is solely written for fun and not for profit.

xo xo xo xo xo xo xo

Once the three of them were safely inside the limousine and on the move, Kaiba reached for the phone.

"Who're you calling?" Jou asked.

"Your sister," Kaiba replied as he picked up the handset and dialled the number. "She needs to know that you are OK."

"She saw the news?" Jou asked, knowing that she must be frantic with worry.

Seto simply nodded as the call was answered.

"Kawai residence," the woman at the other end said in clipped tones. She sounded stressed and after the events of the last few hours, Kaiba wasn't surprised.

"I would like to speak to Shizuka please," he said pleasantly.

"Who is this?" the slightly hostile reply came.

"Kaiba Seto," he replied flatly.

"You... You are the one who was on those pictures with... that boy," she spluttered, seemingly outraged that he would dare to call her.

"Excuse me?" Seto was quite taken aback and his eyebrows almost rose into his hairline. "I take it that you are Katsuya's mother? That is no way to speak about your son."

"That boy is NOT my son," the terse reply came.

Seto glanced over to where Jou was obviously wishing that the upholstery would swallow him up. "Putting that aside," he said, "can I speak with Shizuka now?"

The woman was about to argue again, but then someone else could be heard in the background. A few words were exchanged, then finally Shizuka's voice was heard. "Hello? Kaiba?"

"Yes. Is everything alright?"

"Um... as well as it can be," she said. "Do you have news of my brother?"

"Yes, he's right here, but before I pass you over, what is your mother's problem with him?"

"I don't really know." Shizuka sounded sad. "She has always been a bit irrational when it comes to Katsuya. I used to think that it was just down to him being in a gang, but even though he's turned his life around so much she hasn't changed her opinion of him. It didn't even matter that he was the one who obtained the money for the surgery to stop me from going blind. She still doesn't want to know."

"Thank you Shizuka and I'm sorry to hear that," Seto said. Something about the way that Mrs. Kawai had insisted that Jou was not her son had set alarm bells ringing in his mind as it sounded like more than just a disowning. However, that was a puzzle for later on. "I'll pass you over to Jou now." He gave Jou the handset then sat back and watched as he spoke enthusiastically to his sister, assuring her that he was not too badly hurt and not to worry over him.

"What was all that about, Kaiba," Yugi leaned in to whisper to the tall CEO.

"Jou's mother. She's quite..." he paused as words failed him.

"I know what you mean," Yugi said grimly. "I met her once and she really doesn't like Jou very much. She seems to have completely disowned him and no-one really knows why."

"Hmm," Seto pondered some more as they pulled up outside the Game Shop. "Looks like it's your stop, Yugi."

"Yeah. Bye Kaiba. Bye Jou," He paused as he got out of the car. "If there is anything you need help with..."

Normally Kaiba would have snapped something dismissive, but instead he gave a rare smile. "We'll be sure to let you know," he said. "Bye Yugi."

"Bye Yug'," Jou said. "Thanks for coming."

"You're welcome, Jou," Yugi beamed. "What kind of friend would I be otherwise?" He said goodbye again, closed the car door and hurried into the shop as his Grandpa appeared at the entrance.

"Jou?" Seto said, looking back and noticing the other staring at the phone with a look of distaste. "What's wrong?"

Jou sighed. "Ma took the phone off Shizuka and hung up on me." He looked at Seto, clearly showing his confusion. "I don't get it. What do I have to do?"

"Oh Katsuya," Seto slipped into the seat next to Jou, "I can't answer that, but you do have plenty of other people who care for you."

"Yeah, I guess I'm lucky like that," Jou replied with a small smile. "As long as I can stay in touch with Shizuka, that woman can get stuffed."

"Good. Now do you have anything you need to get from your father's apartment?" Seto asked.

Jou mused a moment. "Yeah, I guess I do have a couple of things that I wouldn't like to lose."

"Right. We'll head past there and get what you need before we go back to the mansion." Seto looked at Jou suddenly. "You are OK with that aren't you? I didn't mean to assume..."

"Where else am I gonna go?" Jou said. "But seriously Seto, there is nowhere else I would rather be right now."

"I'm glad to hear that," Seto said as they pulled up outside of the dilapidated building where Jou had lived with his father. "Come on, I'll give you a hand." Seto helped Jou from the car and up to the ramshackle apartment. He could sense Jou's hesitation as they reached the door. "Jou?" he prompted.

"It's nothing, really," Jou said, "It's just that... I'd hoped that you'd never have to see this."

"However bad you think it is, it's not your fault, Jou," Seto replied reassuringly. "I won't think any less of you."

"Yeah, hold on to that thought," Jou muttered under his breath as he placed the key in the lock and pushed the door open. Seto couldn't help but flinch slightly as the stench of stale smoke and alcohol assaulted his senses, but he suppressed his reactions as he followed Jou through the dingy apartment and through a door into what could only be Jou's room. Jou closed the door behind him and Seto took in the meagre space that Jou had called home. An old single bed lay along one wall, one corner propped up with breeze blocks as the leg had been broken off at some time in the past. A broken down chest of drawers was on the other wall and the carpet was utterly threadbare, although it was obvious that Jou had done his level best to keep the place at least somewhat clean.

Seto was brought out of his contemplation of how Jou had been forced to live as said blond fished a tatty carry-all out of an old wardrobe that had definitely seen better days, then dumped the bag on the bed.

"Can I get a hand here please Seto," Jou asked. "I'd do it myself, but..." he waved his plaster cast in Seto's general direction.

"Of course, Jou," he replied. "I'm sorry." He moved quickly to help Jou pack his bag, finishing in a very short time. "Is... that all?" Seto asked, amazed at how little Jou actually had.

"Yeah, almost everything of any value is already over at your place," Jou replied. "It was just those few bits, especially the pictures of Shizuka, that I really wanted to save."

"Alright then, let's get out of here," Seto said, steeling himself for the walk back through the apartment. They quickly left and entered the limo, Jou letting out a huge sigh of relief as they finally pulled away.

"Jou?" Seto asked after hearing that sigh.

"I'm just glad that we got out of there without one of them Social Workers turning up," Jou said. "I really didn't want to deal with them tonight."

"From what I know of them I doubt that they will try to trouble you tonight," Seto said, "but I will be glad when we get home and I can lock the place down." He shook his head, "No, when we deal with them it will be on our terms."

"We?" Jou raised his eyebrows, looking at Seto who was sitting in the opposite seat.

"Yes, we," Seto said with a smile. "We are in this together." He frowned. "They have threatened my custody of Mokuba several times and that is not normal procedure, just as shipping ex gang members out of town isn't. It's never seemed possible to complain through normal channels as things tend to get hushed up, but I do have a plan to deal with them as long as you trust me."

"I'd trust you with my life, Seto," Jou said fervently.

"Are you sure about that," Seto said with a wry smile. "After all, I haven't exactly done a stellar job so far."

"That wasn't really your fault," Jou began, only to be cut off.

"Yes, it was," Seto insisted, sinking to his knees in the well between the seats. "I promised to help you if you needed it," he leaned forwards and buried his face into Jou's neck, "I brushed you off without a thought," his voice lowered to a whisper, "I could have lost you..."

Jou was alarmed. He'd never seen Seto react like this before. "I already forgave you, Seto," he said, but then his eyes widened as he felt a dampness on his shoulder and he realised that it was from Seto's tears. He raised his good arm and carefully hugged Seto to him. "Really, it's OK, I'm still here and I won't leave you if I can help it," he said reassuringly, holding Seto close as he struggled to bring himself under control.

"I'm sorry," Seto said as he finally regained his composure and sat back on the other side of the limo, "I didn't mean to get all maudlin on you."

"Hey, that's OK," Jou smiled at Seto, who was still trying to disguise the slight puffiness of his eyes, "You are just showing that you care."

"I bet I look a wreck," Seto said with a frown.

"Nah, it hardly shows at all," Jou reassured, "Now, c'mere." Seto obeyed meekly and slipped into the seat beside Jou. "Listen carefully. I don't blame you for what happened today and I forgive you for not listening to me. You had a lot to deal with as everything happened at once and I can appreciate that. Now, can we not mention it again? Please?"

"Of course," Seto said. "Thank you for being so understanding." He leaned into the side of his love, burying his face in unruly blond locks and savouring the closeness, but the moment couldn't last as before long they were pulling up outside the mansion and Mokuba was running out to meet them.

"Jou! Are you alright?" Mokuba demanded as soon as Jou was within reach.

"I'm fine, squirt," he replied, ruffling the boy's unruly raven locks. "I got a broken arm and a few cuts and bruises, but I'm still here."

"And that is the main thing," Seto said as he ushered them towards the house, wanting to get the place into lockdown. No-one else would be getting in tonight if he could help it!

They were accosted by Mrs Doyle as they walked through the door. "Oh, Mr. Jonouchi, it's such a terrible thing that happened to you," she flustered, although there was a strained undertone to her voice. "Now come along and I'll make you a nice cup of tea."

"We'll all have one, Mrs Doyle," Seto replied calmly. "Mokuba, can you bring your laptop and hook it up in the lounge? I'm sure that Noa would like to join us."

"Of course, Seto," Mokuba beamed as he ran up to his room.

Soon they were all sitting together and Jou smiled, feeling like part of a family for the first time since his parents had divorced. Of course, he couldn't help but wish that his sister could be there too, but that would only be a matter of time, even if he had to wait until she turned 18. He didn't think it would be quite that long as he was sure that his mother, being the aspiring social climber she was, would be more than happy to encourage Shizuka's association with the younger Kaiba. He was sure that she would be able to tolerate the fact that Shizuka would have to also associate with 'that boy', as she liked to call him, to achieve that goal. He still didn't understand why she seemed to resent him so much, constantly telling him that he was no son of hers.

Eventually, everyone else left the room, finally leaving Seto and Jou alone. Jou sighed, instantly bringing Seto's attention.

"What's the matter?" Seto asked with a hint of concern.

"Just thinking about my Ma, that's all," Jou replied sadly. "I don't know what I did to make her hate me so much."

"You really haven't had much luck in the parental department have you?" Seto put his arm around Jou. "As bad as Gozaburo was, at least I had the good memory of my real parents to sustain me."

"Things weren't always like this though," Jou said. "Yeah, my mother always showed favouritism towards Shizuka, but it wasn't until the divorce that she completely turned against me. I never understood why she left me with dad. Even as cold as she was, she never treated me as badly as he did."

"She probably has her reasons, even though they may not be good ones," Seto said in a conciliatory tone. "But I think the best thing you can do is forget about her for the moment and concentrate on the here and now."

"Yeah, I hear ya," Jou said. "It's just hard, ya know?" He sighed. "At least I should get to see Shizuka a bit more now that she's friends with Mokuba. My mother will probably try to encourage that connection as much as possible."

"Should we be worried?" Seto pulled back and looked his lover in the eyes.

"About gold-digging?" Jou enquired. Seto nodded. "Well, my ma might be that way, but Shizuka definitely isn't. Still, I don't know if she would go so far as to try and make some kind of capital out of the fact that they are friends and possibly push for them to be more." He gave a wry smile, "I'm sure that she would rather Shizuka have had a chance with you, but that's never gonna happen - something else that she'll resent me for." He shook his head, "She might still encourage Shizuka to try and split us up though."

"Well, we'll deal with her if it becomes too much of an issue," Seto replied. "It's not like she has any chance of splitting us up," Seto gave Jou a reassuring squeeze as he said this, "and I'm sure that Shizuka won't give her any help."

"Yeah, you can be sure of that," Jou confirmed. They sat quietly together for a moment before Jou felt the need to speak again. "Seto?"

"What is it, Jou?"

"Does Honda have to lose his job over this?" Jou looked at Seto with puppy dog eyes.

"Well, what he did was a severe breach of protocol," Seto said carefully. "The reason we use that particular courier is because they have a reputation for being secure. To leave sensitive documents of any kind where a competitor can get at them is just not acceptable. Not to mention that if his association with Otogi, the owner of the Black Crown and a known rival to Kaiba Corporation had been known, then he would likely not have been employed in the first place."

"I don't think that last one is going to be an issue any more," Jou pointed out. "Otogi basically betrayed us all tonight and Honda won't stand for that."

"But because of Honda's carelessness I nearly lost you," Seto pulled Jou close once again at the thought of what had nearly happened.

"But I'm still here," Jou said once again. "Honda is my friend. He may have made an error of judgement but I don't want him to suffer over it any more than he is already. He'll be beating himself up over his lapse, that's for sure and he won't have a boyfriend after tonight. Why take away his job too?"

"You do realise that they'll probably sack him anyway once they find out what happened?" Seto couldn't help but point out.

"But you can intercede for him can't you?" Jou was looking at Seto with those damnable puppy eyes again and Seto feared that he could not resist.

"Alright, for you, Katsuya," Seto sighed. "I'll email them tomorrow and I'll also call them first thing on Monday morning."

"Thank you Seto," Jou was truly grateful.

"Talking of the morning," Seto's face turned serious, "we are going to be giving an interview on live TV about our relationship."

"We are?" Jou was shocked. "I mean... are you sure it's a good idea?"

"Jou, those pictures are in the public domain now," Seto said gently "Nothing is going to change that, but we can make it work for us. An interview will help to clear up any misconceptions and it should garner public sympathy, which is always a good thing." He looked at Jou, "Do you trust me?"

"I do trust you, Seto," Jou said, "but I'm not convinced about this."

"I know, and I do understand," Seto said, "but the only other options are for us to get the lawyers onto it, which can be very... invasive for all involved, or for us to go on the run until you turn 18 and not only is that a terribly bad idea, but you don't run, do you?"

"You're right, I would rather put up a fight, but I also don't want all the muck from my past raked up. We'll try it your way," Jou conceded.

"Thank you," Seto said. "We may still end up having to get lawyers involved somewhere along the way, but..." he stopped as Jou yawned. Seto shook his head and stood. "Never mind that now, lets get to bed. We can talk about the ins and outs of what the conference will entail in the morning after I have set it up. For now, I just want to hold you to reassure myself that you are still here."

"Aww, Seto, you say the nicest things," Jou said with a genuine smile, standing and following Seto to their room. Once they were there, Jou went to get undressed, only to struggle to undo his buttons. "Damn. Seto could I get a hand here? Undoing these things with one hand is harder than you'd think."

"Of course," Seto helped Jonouchi to undo the tricky things, gasping as he saw the livid bruises spattered across Jonouchi's torso. "Jou... Are you in any pain?"

"Not really," Jou replied. "They gave me some painkillers at the hospital and although I will need to take some more later, I'm good for now."

"Are you sure?" Seto asked.

"Yeah, I'm fine Seto," Jou said as he stood, heading towards the bathroom.

"Are you going to be OK in there, or do you need me to hold it for you?" Seto said with a smile, attempting to alleviate the mood slightly.

"Very funny, Seto," Jou said wryly as he reached the bathroom door. Before he entered, however he turned back and pierced Seto with a smouldering gaze, or at least as smouldering a look as he could manage with a black eye. "Besides, if you came and held it for me, I'd just end up either not being able to pee or giving us both a golden shower!" Laughing he quickly entered the bathroom and closed the door, leaving Seto with a half amused, half horrified expression on his face.

Soon, both of them were ready for bed. They settled together under the covers Seto carefully pulling Jou close and just holding him, thinking about how close he'd come to losing him, Jou content to lie there and let Seto have his way. Shortly they were slumbering together, not worrying about what was to come. That would wait until morning.

xo xo xo xo xo xo xo

The next morning, Seto awoke before Jou and spent several minutes simply looking at the golden haired boy in his bed. However, something had been weighing on his mind over the relationship that Jonouchi had with his mother and he wanted to look into it and hopefully get it out of the way so that it would not be on his mind and potentially distracting him during the interview that was scheduled for later on that day.

Carefully, so as not to wake his sleeping boyfriend, he extricated himself from the bed and visited the bathroom. When he returned, he thoughtfully put a glass of water along with some painkillers on the bedside table for when Jou woke up then stepped over to his desk and booted up his laptop.

First of all he made arrangements for the interview to take place later that morning, then he decided to do some research. Several minutes later, he stared at the screen in shock. He had his explanation for Ms. Kawai's behaviour with regard to Jonouchi, but he couldn't dwell too long on the discovery that he'd made as Jou groaned and rose sluggishly from the bed. He gratefully took the painkillers then bumbled sleepily into the bathroom with a yawn and a murmured "G'mornin'". Seto took a moment to shut the computer down, his mind mulling over the information he'd come across, then he entered the bathroom after his lover.

"Hey sleepyhead," he embraced Jou from behind as he washed his good hand, dropping a kiss onto the unruly blond hair.

"Hey yourself," Jou replied, blinking at Seto, still struggling to wake up.

"Do you want to take a shower?" Seto asked. "I'm sure it will make you feel better."

"Yeah, it would, but what about this?" Jou asked, carefully raising his plastered arm. "I can't get it wet."

"Don't worry, I've got some bags that'll do for that," Seto replied as he stepped away and started the shower running.

"OK then, that is as long as you'll join me," Jou said, a blush crossing his face.

"Of course," Seto replied with a blush of his own. It'll be easier if I help you anyway." He cast an appreciative eye over Jou as he shucked off his clothes.

"You keep on telling yourself that," Jou threw over his shoulder as he made sure that the bag Seto had provided was secure over his cast and stepped into the shower, Seto joining him a few moments later.

After they had showered and re-dressed, Jou having opted for a simple t-shirt and sweat pants, Seto felt that he really needed to bring something up. "Jou, there is something that we need to talk about."

Jou heard the tone of Seto's voice and knew that it would be nothing good. "What is it?" he asked with concern.

Seto guided Jou to the bed and sat him down on the edge, sinking down next to him and putting his arm around his shoulders. "Jou... there is no easy way to say this, but... you know how your mother keeps on saying that you are not her son?"

"yeah?" Jou said worriedly.

"Well, something about the way she said it struck me as a bit off," Seto continued, "like it were more than a simple disowning. I need to tell you that while you were asleep this morning I did a little research..." Seto hesitated, knowing that what he was about to reveal would change everything for his partner.

"Go on," Jou urged, fearful over what Seto had to say, but needing to know what had him so worried.

"I discovered that... she isn't your biological mother," Seto said bluntly, knowing that there was no real way to cushion the impact.

Understandably Jou was shocked and he rocked back as if from a physical blow, his first thought one of denial. "You're kidding, right?" he blurted out, but one look at Seto's serious expression chased away all thoughts that he could be joking.

"I'm sorry Jou, but it does appear to be true," Seto said gently.

Jou gasped, "But... why did she never tell me?" he wondered, but then his eyes widened as he considered something else. "Does this mean that Shizuka isn't my sister?"

"That was the very first thing I checked out." Seto said in what he hoped was a reassuring tone. "From what I could find out, your father really is your father, but he didn't marry your mother until you were nearly a year old. Shizuka is actually your half-sister."

Jou got up and began pacing as he digested this information, Seto watching with concern. "Damn it. I guess at least now I know why she never took me with her and why she always said that I was no son of hers." He sighed, knowing what he had to ask next, even if he wasn't so sure he wanted to know. "So... do you know what happened to my real mother?" he asked finally.

"I haven't had a chance to look very far into that yet," Seto said, "but I do have a name at least. Maria Wheeler."

Jou stopped short and looked at Seto incredulously. "That's not a Japanese name," he observed.

"I know." Seto stood and walked over to Jonouchi, "And then comes the reason I am telling you this now rather than after the interview," he looked carefully at Jou to gauge his reaction. "It appears that you were not born in Japan. You were actually born in America."

"Shit!" Jou swore as the implications raced through his mind. "That means..."

"Yes," Seto pulled Jou towards him, "it means that they may try to deport you to America." He lowered his voice to a hiss, "But I won't let them take you. I just hope that you are not upset with me for looking into your past."

Jou sighed. "No I'm not upset with you," he reassured. "It's better that I hear it from someone who cares rather than someone who just sees me as a nuisance to be got rid of." He put his arm around Seto and buried his face into his neck, needing to feel the comfort that the other provided.

"Thank you, Jou," Seto replied. "There is also something else I need to tell you about what the social services have been doing."

"Oh?" Jou stepped back and looked into Seto's eyes again.

"I've had my own reasons for looking into their actions," Seto explained, stepping away from Jonouchi and sitting at his desk. "They've constantly held Mokuba's custody over me in an attempt to keep me... in line. I ended up having to do what they said, or they would take him away."

"They blackmailed you?" Jou was incredulous.

"Yes, I guess you could call it that," Seto confirmed. "They never pushed me too far, perhaps knowing that I would only take so much." He smirked, "It suited me to go along with them for the most part. Yes, I could have rocked the boat, but it wouldn't have been worth the extra work. As I am now 18, they have even less say, but seeing as they have not stopped pushing I think it's past time to put a stop to it once and for all." He looked at Jou intently. "With regard to your case, you know as well as I do that it is not official policy anywhere to ship troublemakers away from their homes," he explained. "By insisting on doing things this way, they are putting more children at risk because those in danger dare not seek assistance, knowing that there is the likelihood that they would be sent away from everyone and everything they know." Seto shook his head in disbelief, "This, from those who should be doing what they can to help."

"I get where you are coming from," Jou said, "but... how are we going to stop them?"

"With your permission, I'm going to expose them during that press conference." Seeing Jou's sceptical expression, he clarified his position. "By now, the world will have seen where you were living and there will be much speculation over why you were living like that whilst working for me."

"So this is a face saving exercise for you?" Jou asked, wide eyed with disbelief.

"Not at all," Seto replied calmly, understanding that Jou's thought processes may be a little muddled at the moment. "I just want to keep you here and letting people know that Kaiba Seto's personal assistant had to live in such a situation and could not ask for help to escape his father's influence due to corruption in the system will reflect very badly upon them. This is the perfect opportunity to blow the lid off the scandal so that they can't brush it under the carpet as they will if you try to go through official channels." Seto stood and took Jou's hands. "Katsuya, I'm just trying to help you. Trust me, please?"

"I don't know..." Jou said, still slightly unconvinced.

"This will all become public domain anyway as the press look further into your past," Seto reasoned, "At least this way you can control how it breaks and make it work for you."

Jou slumped in defeat. "OK Seto, we'll do things your way. I can't say I'm totally happy about it, but I'll admit that I can see the benefits."

"I'm sorry Jou," Seto said, "This kind of thing was almost inevitable once we became involved, but if it helps you any, just think of the people that this could help."

"Hmm," Jou nodded his agreement. "Once everything is sorted out and the system is back to what it should be, others like me who desperately need help will be able to get it." Jou paused as he saw the guarded look on his love's face. "I know it won't be easy and that these things won't happen overnight, especially where this kind of governmental bureaucracy is involved, but at least it will be a start."

Seto nodded and let the guarded expression drop. As long as Jou wasn't expecting too much too soon... He shook himself back into the here and now and addressed Jou again. "I know this must have been an incredible shock for you, but we will work through it and you know that I'll always be there for you."

"Thanks Seto," Jou said as he embraced Seto gratefully, burying his reaction to the news of his parentage for now. He could rant and rail about it later, then he could decide what, if anything, he was going to do about it, but for now they had a press conference to give. "So... I suppose we'd better get this show on the road." Jou sounded more confident than Seto knew he really was.

"Yes," Seto agreed. "Are you sure that you are going to be OK?"

Jou gave Seto a watery smile, "Yeah, I'll be good."

"Come on then." Seto gave Jou's hand a reassuring squeeze as he led him from the room.

"Um... where is this conference being held?" Jou asked as he noticed that they did not seem to be heading towards the garage.

"It's actually less of a press conference and more of a personal interview and it's going to be held in one of the sitting rooms here at the mansion," Seto said. "We're going for a more personal approach to try and gain more public sympathy than we would otherwise have achieved if we had gone with the expected businesslike approach."

"I see," Jou mused. "Sounds good."

"I'm glad you approve." Seto smiled as they approached the sitting room, then put his game face on. This interview would probably decide their fate – and a lot more besides.

xo xo xo xo xo xo xo

**A/N** - Poor Jou, life just keeps on throwing him curve-balls.

The next chapter - and I know I keep saying this - may take a bit longer. The further I go through the story, the more needs fixing and changing. The 'last' chapter may need to be re-written almost from the ground up at this rate!

Thank you for reading and reviewing. I appreciate every favourite, alert and review.


	12. Chapter 12

**Disclaimer:** I do not own YuGiOh!. That pleasure belongs to Kazuki Takahashi. I also do not own Father Ted. That belongs to Hat Trick and Channel 4. This is solely written for fun and not for profit.

xo xo xo xo xo xo xo

Seto entered the sitting room where the interview was to be held, Jou close behind him. The interviewer stood and extended her hand. "Mr. Kaiba, thank you for granting this interview."

"Not at all, Miss Aino," Seto replied graciously. "It is the very least I could do after you were so much help yesterday."

Miss Aino blushed. "Anyone else would have done the same," she demurred.

"Unfortunately, not everyone in your line of work would," Seto pointed out, then beckoned Jou forwards. "I'd like to introduce you to Jonouchi Katsuya, my personal assistant."

Jou held out his good hand and shook hands with the small woman. "You're the one that called the police yesterday?" he asked. "Thank you for that, I really appreciate it."

"It was nothing," she blushed. "So, is it true that you two are an item?" She asked.

"Miss Aino," Seto interjected coolly, "Please save the questions for the interview. Everything you wish to know will be answered then."

"Of course. I'm sorry, Mr. Kaiba," the interviewer replied contritely, not wanting to lose this chance.

"How long do we have until we are on air?" Jou asked.

"We can be on within a couple of minutes," Miss Aino replied. "The cameras are all set up and we're ready to go whenever you are."

"We're ready," Seto said, looking over at Jonouchi who nodded his agreement even though he looked a little unsure. Seto surreptitiously gave Jou's hand a small squeeze to communicate his support and Jou relaxed slightly. He was as ready as he could be in the circumstances.

Miss Aino made a gesture. "OK, places everyone," the cameraman called. Seto and Jou sat on a comfortable looking couch together, while Miss Aino sat on a provided chair that did not look nearly as comfortable.

"On air in 3... 2... 1..."

xo xo xo xo xo xo xo

"Good morning. This is Aino Mira for Channel 9 news and I'm privileged to be able to bring you an interview with none other than Kaiba Seto and his personal assistant, Jonouchi Katsuya." Jou and Seto nodded for the camera, Seto appearing cool and collected as usual and Jou doing his best to hide his nervousness. Part of his discomfort was due to the fact that his injuries were openly on show, not something he was used to exposing, least of all to the world.

"Now, Mr. Kaiba," the woman began, "the big question, the one on everyone's minds. Could you tell us about the photographs that were shown yesterday and are they genuine?"

"Yes they are genuine," Seto said with an incline of his head. "They were stolen from an album that was being sent by courier to Jonouchi's sister."

"Stolen, you say?" Mira said with raised eyebrows. "Do you know how that came to happen and what action have you taken?"

"The courier was a... friend of ours who trusted someone that he shouldn't have done, a rival that has been trying to get one over on me for a while." Seto paused for effect. "Unfortunately, publishing those pictures did not have the effect that this rival had hoped for and instead nearly cost Jonouchi his life."

"As for the action taken," Jou interjected before the woman could speak again, "our lawyers are looking into what action to take against channel 7, but we haven't taken any action against either the courier or the person that took the photos. Things have backfired against them badly enough as it is and I really don't want to see my friend lose his job."

"I see," Mira said. "So it's as a direct result of these photographs being shown that you ended up this way?" She directed her question to the clearly injured Jonouchi.

"Ah, yeah. My dad..." he faltered, not really wanting to speak about it.

"What Jonouchi is trying to say," Seto took up where Jou had left off, "is that his father is an unmitigated homophobe who was incensed after seeing those images and he would probably have killed Jou if your crew hadn't spotted what was going on and called the police."

"You are saying that Mr. Jonouchi's father was abusing him?" Mira asked with wide eyes. "Why were Social Services not involved?"

"Ah, now we come to the crux of the matter," Seto sat back in a semi-relaxed pose. "You see, it has come to my attention that Domino's Social Services have a very strange policy when it comes to minors in its care that are or were what they considered troublemakers or members of a gang, inasmuch as they send them away from Domino City as soon as an opportunity presents itself."

"Are you saying that your personal assistant, Jonouchi Katsuya, was actually a part of Domino's gang culture?" Mira's eyes were even wider at these revelations.

"Yeah, I was," Jou admitted. "It's not something I'm proud of, but I managed to get out a couple of years back and I've been striving to improve my lot ever since, but that don't seem to matter to some of them Social Worker types."

"And to go back to your previous question," Seto took up the narrative, "Yes, Jonouchi's father was, for want of a better way to put it, abusing his son. I've had to patch Jonouchi up on more than one occasion and I've done my best to help him, but due to the nature of Social Services in this city he refused to leave his father's... 'care' until he turned 18, something which is due to happen in just under two weeks time."

"Do you think that they will try to send Mr. Jonouchi away, even with it being so close to his majority?" Mira asked. She aimed her question at Seto, but it was Jou who answered.

"I couldn't say for sure, but I think they probably will," Jou said. "There are a couple of people in the department that made it clear that they hated my guts and I'm sure they'll take this chance to try and ruin things for me."

"That is quite the allegation," Mira said.

"To be fair, I know that his worries are not without merit," Seto added, "I've had my own issues with Social Services in Domino myself."

"Would this be with regard to the custody of your little brother?"'

"Yes," Seto said simply. "As is well documented, I was granted custody of Mokuba by the high court with certain conditions attached. Despite this, Domino Social Services have kept very close tabs on everything I've been doing and have regularly intimated that my keeping custody of him was on their sufferance. Part of the conditions imposed by the High Court was to ensure that I finished my High School education actually within the school system which, while not a necessarily bad thing, made things very awkward for me. However, to appease the local social services department I had to keep an almost perfect level of attendance and my grades had to stay above a certain, very high level, amongst other things, or they would start... interfering. I would have gone back to the courts to clarify my position but I didn't want to subject Mokuba to that kind of stress again and my lawyer, a man I trust implicitly, advised that I should wait until I was over 18 to take further action unless things reached a certain point as otherwise I would take the risk that I might get a less sympathetic judge and end up losing him anyway."

"Mokuba really means a lot to you, doesn't he?" Mira asked gently.

"Yes." A soft expression came into Seto's eyes. "Everything I've done up to now has been for Mokuba. He is the only family I have left."

"Some would say," Mira began, "and I must stress that I do not agree with this sentiment, but some would say that perhaps Mokuba would be better off and at less risk if he were to be placed with a... 'normal' family. What have you to say in response to that?"

"I'm glad you asked me that question," Kaiba said with a steely glint in his eye. "I have heard that said many times before now and I'm pleased that I can finally air my position on the matter." He took a deep breath, "While it is true that this may not be the ideal situation, Mokuba _is _the only family I have left. Everything I do is with Mokuba in mind and I have always done my best to ensure that he has a stable environment." He gave a sharp look to the camera. "I also dispute the notion that Mokuba would be safer with what you refer to as a normal family. Although I have always done my best to keep my brother out of the public spotlight, unfortunately, mainly thanks to the same gutter press that exposed my relationship with Jonouchi, his face has become far too well known for that to be an option. He would now be far less safe as it would only take the wrong person to recognise him and he would have no protection from being kidnapped and used against me, so I'm sure you can understand that I really do have my brother's best interests at heart."

"I'm sure that anyone who has children or younger siblings of their own will understand that," Mira said with some sympathy.

Seto decided to bring the conversation back on track, "With regard to the original problem, now that I am eighteen and as a legal adult should have a firmer hold of Mokuba's custody, the social services department still haven't backed off. In fact they seem to be becoming more intrusive as, and I can only assume, they perceive that they've lost some kind of hold over me. I can only imagine how much worse this will become when I graduate shortly."

"So, from what you are saying, there is apparently quite some corruption within Domino Social Services and it's affecting people at both ends of the social scale," Mira observed.

"Quite," Seto nodded.

"How come this has never come to light before?" Mira asked.

"I can only surmise that it's all part of the same corruption and I've found that if you try to complain through official channels that it tends to get brushed under the carpet," Seto explained. "The higher authorities tend not to take me seriously because, to them, I'm little more than a child, despite the fact that I am the CEO of a major corporation, so they tell me to go through official channels." He shrugged, "I had been waiting for an appropriate juncture to begin legal action to get some kind of redress, but unfortunately it has now come to the point where both my brother _and _my partner are being threatened, so I am left with no recourse but to take some kind of drastic action."

"What kind of action are we talking about here?" Mira enquired.

"Simply put, if push comes to shove then I am prepared to leave Domino, taking Kaiba Corporation with me," Seto said almost nonchalantly.

"But Seto," Jou gasped, clearly having not expected such a proposition, "what about all the people who work for you? Are you going to leave them without jobs? And won't this cost an absolute fortune? That's too much. I'm not worth it."

"Jou, Katsuya," Seto turned towards his partner, "I won't leave anyone wanting. Anyone who wants to keep working for me will be helped to move and those who don't will get glowing recommendations and will be helped to find alternative employment. The cost is nothing compared to what I stand to lose and you are very much worth it to me."

Mira watched the interaction between the two very different teens. She could tell that they were completely serious about this and utterly devoted to each other. She hated to do this to them, but she still had questions that she needed answers to. "Moving Kaiba Corporation away from Domino will have massive repercussions for the local economy. Are you really prepared to do that?"

"Yes, I am," Seto said shortly. "I am prepared to do whatever is necessary to protect what is important to me and if that means leaving Domino, then so be it!"

Mira was about to speak again when there was a disturbance at the door and Mrs. Doyle came in, wringing her hands in distress. She was followed by an official looking man in a suit, a police officer and Isono. Jou's heart sank as he knew the man in the suit as being one of the social workers that had it in for him. The fact that the police officer was one of the few that had looked out for him didn't help all that much and he was sure that things would quickly go down the pan.

"I'm so sorry Master Kaiba," Mrs Doyle said. "These men insisted on seeing Mr. Jonouchi and I couldn't stop them."

"That's quite alright Mrs. Doyle," Seto stood as he replied in English. "Could you please bring tea in for us?" he asked, knowing that the familiar task would calm the distraught woman.

"OK, so," she replied, looking somewhat uncomfortable as she shuffled off, leaving Isono silently standing guard by the door.

"Now, Gentlemen," Seto addressed the two men that had entered the room. "What can we help you with?"

"First of all, I want you to end the broadcast." The suited man demanded.

"I don't think so," Kaiba said coldly, all CEO now. "Whatever business you have to conduct can be done in front of the cameras, unless, of course you have something to hide?" He raised an eyebrow as he looked at them.

"Considering that this is a matter concerning a minor, then yes, I think the cameras should be off," the suited man said belligerently.

And you are?" Seto crossed his arms, glaring at him.

"Yukimura Satoshi, Domino Social services," he replied.

"Funny how you care that Jonouchi is a minor now," Seto said with ill disguised irritation in bis voice. "Where were you when those images were being broadcast yesterday? Where were you when he's needed help for all this time? So tell me," he pinned the man with a steely glare, "do you intend to ship Katsuya out of Domino?"

"The decision is out of my hands," Yukimura replied, "but yes, Jonouchi Katsuya is due to be deported to America this afternoon." A gasp from Mira was the only sound in the room as this announcement sank in.

"So, you are telling me," Seto looked as cold as he was reputed to be, "that you are going to deport a young man that has lived in Domino since he was only a couple of weeks old, that didn't even know that he wasn't born in Japan until a couple of hours ago and only knows at all because I happened to look up his birth records this morning, simply because he used to be in a gang? And it doesn't matter that he got out and improved his life immensely? What kind of Social Services are you?," he asked in outrage. "What kind of message does that send to other young people who are in Jonouchi's position?" His tone of voice left no doubt as to what he thought of them.

"As I said, Mr. Kaiba," the man said again, unwilling to back down, "the decision is out of my hands." He gave Seto a frank look. "You aren't doing yourself any favours either, especially as you are associating with a minor."

"For your second point," Kaiba gave Yukimura a look so frosty that by rights he should have frozen solid where he stood, "we have been together since before I turned 18 and we are only three months apart in age, so that is not an issue." Yes, that was bending the truth of how long they had been together slightly, but Seto knew that it could not proved otherwise. "Apart from that, what you are essentially saying is that I should butt out or my custody of Mokuba will be questioned once again?" Kaiba's eyes narrowed, showing his displeasure.

Yukimura remained silent, perhaps sensing that he had crossed some invisible line, but he was saved from having to answer as the policeman spoke up. "I'm very sorry Mr. Kaiba, but I do have a warrant for the removal of one Jonouchi Katsuya," he held the document out for Kaiba to take.

Seto took it, crossed over to the desk, picked up the phone and dialled a number. He spoke for a moment, then hung up and crossed back over to sit beside Jou, who was sitting with his head bowed. "I do hope you don't mind, but I'm going to have my lawyer look into this."

"Of course," the policeman said pleasantly. "Take all the time you need."

"Please, take a seat," Seto said to the policeman as Mrs Doyle returned with the tea.

"Now hang on a minute," Yukimura said, all belligerence again, "you have a warrant there. I expect you to execute it."

"What's the rush?" the policeman replied. "It seems that you are ready to railroad this young man out of Domino without much good reason and without letting him have his right of appeal. I think that the least we can do is give Mr. Kaiba a chance to save his friend."

"Carry out that warrant now or I will be forced to go over your head." Yukimura was obviously getting desperate now.

"Go right ahead," the officer said calmly. "After all, my commanding officer is the one who specifically sent me here after I explained the situation to him."

Mira was looking at Jonouchi with some sympathy as the lawyer entered the room and began picking apart the warrant. "Mr. Jonouchi," she said, "how do you feel about all of this?"

Jou sighed, but did not look up. "I feel... numb," he said eventually. "I always thought that something like this might happen, but for it to happen so close to being out of Social Service's clutches is, quite frankly, heartbreaking." he sighed again and two wet blotches appeared on his sweatpants. "And now they want to ship me off to another country where I know no-one, making me leave my friends and family behind and the fact that I've improved my lot and got myself a decent job counts for absolutely nothing." His shoulders shook in silent sobs as Seto pulled him into an awkward embrace.

"Do you see what your corrupt policies do?" Seto said, looking at Yukimura with contempt. "And I will repeat myself both for your benefit and that of the viewers. Where you send Jonouchi, I will follow, taking Kaiba Corporation with me." He gave a wicked smile, "I'm sure that the Americans would jump at the chance to have such a large and profitable company as Kaiba Corporation adding to their economy." Seto sat back with a smile on his face, pulling Jou with him. He knew that such an announcement would have the government in a frenzied scramble for damage control as Kaiba Corporation was a fairly large part of the Japanese economy and the loss of such a large company would be extremely detrimental. Given that what was happening with Jou was certainly nowhere near government policy, he expected that, for once, they would move fairly quickly and he was sure that an intervention would soon be forthcoming.

Almost before he could finish that thought, Kaiba's personal cell phone rang. Jonouchi sat up and wiped at his eyes as Seto answered the call. Seto listened for a few moments, then thanked the caller and rang off. He looked expectantly at the social worker, making the man sweat under his gaze.

The reporter noticed the satisfied look on Kaiba's face. "May I ask what that was about, Mr. Kaiba?" Mira asked, reminding everyone of her presence. To be honest she was doing her best to contain her glee. This whole scenario was solid gold and to actually be on site as everything was going down... well, it could only do her career a power of good.

"Yes, you may," Kaiba said with bairly concealed smug satisfaction. "To put it quite simply, due to my assertion that I would take Kaiba Corporation out of the country, the government has now involved itself and the prime minister himself just called me personally to inform me that there is going to be a thorough investigation into what exactly is going on within Domino Social Services as shipping 'problems' out, especially when they have done their best to turn their lives around like Jonouchi has, is definitely not within their guidelines." He cast a sidelong look at Yukimura, "I am also certain that the judge that signed the warrant will be suitably investigated."

"Oh, this is preposterous!" Yukimura exclaimed, although he looked a lot less sure now. "I don't believe for one moment that the Prime Minister would trouble himself to call and I have a perfectly good, legal warrant for the removal of one Jonouchi Katsuya into the custody of Social Services for deportation to America." He glared at the police officer, "You have a duty of care to help me execute that warrant, so can we get to it now?"

Before the officer could reply, Kaiba's lawyer stepped forwards. "I'm sorry, sir, but I cannot allow that to happen. Putting any potential contact from the Government aside, Mr Jonouchi has a right of appeal that he is being denied and I have a duty of care to make sure that he is not disadvantaged by those who would wish to harm him."

"But what about all the harm he's done..." Yukimura tailed off as his phone rang. He paused a moment, then answered the call, listening for several moments then going red faced and storming out without speaking to anyone.

"And that would appear to take care of that," Kaiba said with no small satisfaction. "Thank you," he said to his lawyer. "You may go now, but please be on standby in case I need you again." The man bowed then left the room, taking the warrant with him.

"Does this mean that Mr. Jonouchi will no longer be deported?" Mira asked.

"Yes," Seto looked fondly at the stunned blond sitting next to him. "Jonouchi will no longer be harassed by these people and I was also given assurances that Mokuba's custody will no longer be held over me."

"Such is the power of the Kaiba name." Mira stated. "How does that make you feel, Mr. Jonouchi?"

Jou continued to look stunned for a moment, then he gave a beaming smile. "It's great, Miss Aino," he said with a small quaver in his voice. "It's nice to have people on my side for a change."

Seto put his arm around Jou as he looked over towards Mira. "Thank you for coming Miss Aino," he said coolly. "I think that this is a good place to conclude the interview." He wanted to get Jou off camera as he considered that he had gone through quite enough in the last couple of days.

"One last question if I may?" Mira asked, feeling that it may be time to take a chance now that the interview was all but over. Kaiba gave her a look, but indicated that she should continue. "What effect do you think the exposure of your relationship with Mr. Jonouchi will have on Kaiba Corporation as a whole?"

"I honestly couldn't say, although it would be foolish of me to say that it would have no effect at all," Kaiba said. "Rest assured that we will be working hard to minimise any negative effects, but I will not stand for any prejudice and anyone who does not want to do business with Kaiba Corporation simply because my partner is male is not the sort of person that Kaiba Corporation wants to do business with." He turned a steely eye to the camera, "I will also stress right now that Jonouchi will be remaining as my personal assistant. He is the only person I can trust enough to fill the position other than my brother, who is too young to take on the responsibility of such a role."

Mira stood and bowed. "Thank you for your time Mr. Kaiba, Mr. Jonouchi. And for the record, I'm pleased that things have turned out this way." She turned back to the camera to wrap up as Seto then stood, along with Jonouchi and walked from the room, leaving Isono and Mrs. Doyle to deal with the aftermath. They were followed by the Policeman, who had a smile on his face.

"Thank you for your help," Kaiba said once they were away from the cameras, inclining his head slightly towards the officer.

"It was the right thing to do," the man replied. "Those social worker types have gotten far too big for their britches and I'm sad to say that it needed something like this to bring them back into line. I know darned well that Kat didn't deserve that kind of treatment."

"Thanks, officer Tomatsu," Jou said with a tremulous smile. "I'm glad it was you who was sent here."

"Me too, now you two boys look after yourselves, OK?" Tomatsu said, then he turned to leave.

With that done, Seto wasted no time in leading Jou back to their bedroom, firmly closing the door behind them. "Katsuya," he pulled his trembling lover to him, "are you alright?"

Jou leaned against Seto and let out a deep breath. "Yeah, I'm just glad that's over with." He looked up at Seto. "Would you really have moved Kaiba Corporation?"

"Yes I would." Seto confirmed grimly.

"Even to America?"

"Even to America," he echoed. "You and Mokuba are the two most important things to me and I've had to put up with those people threatening to take Mokuba away from me for far too long. I'm sorry for not telling you about it, but I knew that you would try to talk me out of it and, to be fair, I'd been on the verge of leaving Domino anyway, at least before we got together so the plans for such a move have been in place for a while."

"Really?" Jou's eyes widened. "So you stayed here for me?"

"How could I do otherwise once we'd found each other again?"

"But.. we don't have to leave now, right?" Jou wanted to know.

"Not unless those people start threatening us again," Seto confirmed. "I had intended to try and wait until after I graduated but before Mokuba started his high school education to minimise disruption, but I think we'll be fine now. I'm also sorry for not telling that I was having that much trouble with those people myself. I didn't want to burden you with my problems when you had enough of your own."

"Yeah, I can understand that, Jou said, "but did the prime minister really call you?"

"He certainly did," Seto smirked. "He was most concerned that the authorities in Domino were acting in such a manner and he said that there was no way that someone with either of our circumstances should be treated in such a way, especially as you had done so much to improve yourself," Seto smirked, "and of course, he was very keen that Kaiba Corporation should stay in Japan. I am going to to talk to him again later, after all, we could not have a proper conversation as we _were _on live television at the time."

"So... that's it. I can stay with you?" Jou had tears in his eyes as everything finally sank in. "Thank goodness for that. I know that you'd have followed me, but not being able to see my sister or my friends again would have been far too much." He stopped. "Half-sister," he said sadly, reminding himself of the discovery that Seto had made that morning.

"Jou, she is still your sister," Seto reassured him. "I'm sure that just because you have different mothers, that won't make a difference to her."

"Yeah, you're right," Jou said, "but I'll have to try and call her later." Jou knew that Shizuka was almost certain to have seen the broadcast and, although mention of his parentage had not been made, Shizuka would likely have got the 'truth' out of her mother by now.

I know this may not be a good time to ask," Seto said, interrupting Jou's train of thought, "but do you have any idea what do you want to do with regard to your biological mother?"

"I don't want to know," Jou said, shaking his head for emphasis. "As far as I'm concerned she abandoned me as surely as both my stepmother and my father did. No, better to leave it be."

"If that's the way you want it," Kaiba said cautiously. He supposed that it would be for the best to drop the subject for now, but he would still undertake to research that side of Jou's family beyond the little he'd found out that morning. That way if an issue arose in the future he would be informed and ready.

"It is," Jou said with some finality. "I've got all the family I need right here."

Seto dropped a kiss onto Jou's unruly golden locks. "I'm glad you feel that way and I swear that I won't let anyone separate us without a fight."

Jou finally relaxed, knowing that Seto wouldn't push the subject of his 'real' mother any more, at least for now. "Thanks Seto, that means a lot."

xo xo xo xo xo xo xo**  
**

**A/N** - I'm... not sure that I'm totally happy with this chapter. I've looked it over, changed a bit, sat on it for a while, looked it over again, changed a bit more... you know the drill. I've looked at it until I've gone cross-eyed so I guess it's past time I posted it.

The next two chapters... there's something in them that I'm not really sure works all that well. I'm going to give it a good look over before I start editing it but I may end up writing those parts out and condensing the two chapters into one. we'll see. (But either way, it's going to take a while.)


	13. Chapter 13

**Disclaimer:** I do not own YuGiOh!. That pleasure belongs to Kazuki Takahashi. I also do not own Father Ted. That belongs to Hat Trick and Channel 4. This is solely written for fun and not for profit.

**A/N**- Finishing this chapter has been a real slog. Part of it didn't work at all and I had to rewrite the entire first part of the chapter from scratch as it was too much to just take out the redundant bits and stitch the rest of it together. Of course the rest of the chapter also needed a major overhaul after that. It also doesn't help that RL issues have recently put a dampener on my enthusiasm, which made everything all the more difficult.

I admit that I'm not completely happy with this chapter, but it has already taken me an age to get it this far and I can't even bring myself to look at it anymore, so I will post it now and reserve the right to come back and change/edit it later if I think of a way to improve it. I apologise in advance if it isn't up to par.

**Also - **I'm revising this to read as complete - for now. The 'epilogue' I mentioned previously is just NOT up to snuff and will need a lot more work and expansion before I consider it to be. It doesn't help that my inspiration and motivation for this story has gone out of the window and besides, I think this chapter has a good ending point as it is. Sometimes trying to force more out of a story does not work and that is where I find myself right now.

xo xo xo xo xo xo xo

The next day found Jou and Seto heading to Kaiba corporation after dropping Mokuba off at school. Kaiba had decided that it would be for the best if they took a day off from school themselves to deal with any problems within Kaiba Corporation and Jou couldn't help but agree. Kaiba had called the school and informed the secretary of that fact. She had seemed quite flustered, but Kaiba had paid that no mind, simply stating that they would not be in for the day and hanging up.

Both Mokuba and Noa had watched the previous day's broadcast from the relative safety of Mokuba's room and they had both been rightly pleased that the problems with Social Services that had been plaguing both Seto and Jonouchi were being sorted out. Mokuba had been aghast at just how much his brother had gone through in order to keep him safe, but he was especially pleased that he was no longer likely to be used as leverage to keep his brother 'in line'.

Also, as promised, representatives from the government had spoken to both Kaiba and Jonouchi at some length, making assurances that the corruption within Domino's local government would be dealt with harshly now that it had been brought to their attention. Kaiba privately sneered at this as he knew that it was only the glare of publicity that was causing them to have to move and he would regard everything with a healthy dose of cynicism until he actually saw results.

Jonouchi was also personally assured that he was perfectly entitled to stay in Japan as his father was a Japanese national and it didn't matter how unfit a parent he was, that wasn't Jonouchi's fault. Assurances were also made that programs would be put in place to assist those that had found themselves in a similar situation to Jonouchi. Kaiba had also regarded this with cynicism, but that hadn't stopped him from promising to make a large donation in order to help get the project off the ground.

Jou had then spent a fair amount of time on the phone to his friends, including Honda. His oldest friend had still been extremely contrite and apologetic, especially as he felt that he could not accept Kaiba's intervention in order to keep his job as a courier. He explained his decision in that he would always be under a cloud of suspicion and his special treatment, which is what it would be seen as, would poison the working environment to such an extent as to make it impossible to work there.

Jou was understandably not too happy, but understood Honda's reasoning, so he moved on and asked how things had gone with Otogi. Honda had sighed and told him that he had broken things off with Otogi, but as much as he knew that he'd had no choice, it had still hurt like a bitch. Jou expressed his sympathy and said that he would be there for his friend. Honda thanked him and said that Otogi could go rot.

Back to today, where Honda approached Yugi as he stood at his locker. "Hey Yugi," he greeted his friend. "Have you seen Jonouchi yet?"

Yugi shook his head. "Jou called earlier and told me that they are not coming in today" he said. "Kaiba thought that it would be for the best to let the furore die down a touch and to do any needed damage control at Kaiba Corporation, not that he expects it to be too much of an issue." He shrugged. "Kaiba is Kaiba after all."

"Oh," Honda sounded disappointed. "It's to be expected, I suppose." He gave a wry grin, "All those reporters standing outside are going to be quite disappointed then."

"Yeah," Yugi agreed, shaking his head. "The principal is not happy about that, I can tell you."

"I can imagine," Honda said. "Oh well, I guess I'll just have to catch up with Jou later."

"How are you bearing up, Honda?" Yugi asked, mindful that Jonouchi and Kaiba hadn't been the only ones hurt by Otogi's idiocy.

"I'm OK, I guess," Honda replied with a shrug. "I still need to find a new job and it's going to take a while to get over... him."

"Well, you know that I'll be here for you," Yugi said as they left the locker room.

"Thanks Yug', I appreciate that."

As the pair walked away a raven haired teen stepped out from behind the last row of lockers where he had been lurking ever since he had first heard Yugi come in. Otogi knew that he had fucked up spectacularly when he had sent those photos in to channel 7 and he wouldn't be able to take the disappointed look that Yugi would inevitably send his way. Honda's arrival had only resolved his decision to stay out of the way as, after the bitter argument and break up they'd gone through the previous day, he knew that things would not go well were he to make his presence known.

However, he was disappointed to learn that Kaiba and Jonouchi would not be attending school today. He had been hoping to get the chance to apologise to Jonouchi and Kaiba in person, although he knew that such a think would have been almost impossible as Kaiba wasn't likely to give him the time of day or allow him to get anywhere near Jonouchi, something Otogi wouldn't blame him for in the slightest.

He sighed as he continued to bitterly regret everything that had happened since he'd cut those photos from that album. He'd never considered that things might turn out this way, with Jonouchi almost being killed and then almost deported. When he had seen Jonouchi being loaded into the ambulance on that TV window display, he'd instantly known that it was his fault even without the benefit of audio commentary. When Honda had gone running off to the hospital he hadn't dared to follow, instead heading back home to watch the news and find out just how bad the damage was.

Honda had not come back to see him that night, instead leaving him to stew overnight and, perhaps, to let himself calm down a touch. When Honda had inevitably arrived the next day and laid into him, it was driven home just how the effects of his actions were definitely not restricted to Kaiba and Jonouchi, having not only cost himself his relationship with Honda, but he discovered that he had also cost Honda his job.

Honda had then left, saying that he couldn't be with someone who could betray him and his friends in such a way and Otogi really didn't blame him. He'd sat and thought for a long time after Honda had gone and, realising that he had pretty much ruined everything beyond repair, he had come to a decision. He would have to leave, sell the Black Crown and start again somewhere new. He really had lost sight of the bigger picture, being so obsessed with bringing Kaiba down a peg and he was determined that he would learn from this mistake and think things through before acting in future.

But before all that, he still owed an apology to the persons most wronged.

With that in mind, he left the locker room and exited the school. No-one that mattered would miss him and as for those that would? Well, it would hardly matter soon as he would be gone.

Putting his car into gear, he left the school car park, intent on heading for Kaiba Corporation. He wasn't sure how he would actually get in, but still, he felt that he had to try.

xo xo xo xo xo xo xo

As Jou and Seto were arriving at Kaiba Corp, Jou turned to Kaiba. "Are you sure that you are ready to go through with this," he asked.

"Shouldn't I be asking you that question?" Seto asked with a wry smile. "But yes, I am ready – or should I say that I have no choice but to be ready. There is bound to be some fallout from recent events but if I stay away it's going to look as though I'm running away which will cause yet more problems. Despite all that, I am ready." He looked at Jou with some concern, "But how about you? You don't have to come in if _you_don't feel ready."

"Nah, I'm fine," Jou said with a smile. "Thanks for asking though. That means a lot. Besides, if you can't run away, then neither can I and for the same reasons. We are in this together, aren't we?"

"Of course we are," Seto said. He leaned over and gave Jou a quick kiss. "So, if you're ready..."

The driver opened the door and Seto stepped out, closely followed by Jou. Seto began to stride confidently into the building, feeling proud as Jou walked with apparently just as much confidence. They strode through the building, holding their heads high even as whispers erupted around them. Soon they reached the relative sanctuary of Seto's office and they stepped inside with some relief.

"Still with me?" Seto asked Jou as the blond visibly sagged.

"Yeah, I guess," Jonouchi replied with a sigh. "I guess that even the boss isn't immune to being gossiped about."

"I'm intending to put out an internal memo," Seto informed his assistant. "Putting our position down on paper – or in this case, email - will help calm some of the speculation that is sure to be running rife at the moment. Of course, I know it won't stop everything, after all, that interview should have been informative enough, but this should help stop productivity from dropping too much."

"Sounds sensible," Jou said, "but couldn't that backfire and cause yet more gossip?"

"There is always that chance," Seto acknowledged, "and I know that I don't have to explain myself at all, but once the memo has circulated, anyone caught shirking and gossiping will be dealt with harshly." He pressed a button. "Saya, could you come in and take a memo please?"

"Yes sir," Came the reply.

"Do you want me to take her post for now?" Jou asked.

"If you don't mind," Seto replied "I need someone on the phone, that is, as long as you trust me to do this right."

"Of course I do," Jou said almost indignantly. "You haven't done me wrong so far since all this kicked off."

"You know that isn't strictly true," Seto pointed out.

"I already forgave you for that, so can we not bring it up again," Jou said with a sigh.

"Of course. I'm sorry," Seto said as the door opened and Saya walked in.

"I'm ready to take your memo, Sir," Saya said perkily, "and I'd just like to say that I'm glad things are working out for you both."

"Thank you Saya," Seto replied as the secretary made herself ready.

"I'll just go and man the phones then," Jou said, heading out of the door.

Over the next while, he only had to answer the phone a handful of times, but that was a handful of times too many as most of those consisted of other staff members calling to try and dig for gossip and he reprimanded those harshly. A couple of times, somehow, the press had got through, trying to get a scoop. He cut them off then called down to the front desk and reprimanded them for that. The last call, from an unidentified number, just had someone calling him derogatory names. He called up Noa to trace that last call as it had likely been an internal call, then he took the phone off the hook as he gave it up as a bad job.

A few moments after that, he was surprised to hear the chime of the lift arriving, but a far more unpleasant surprise was just who stepped out of it.

"Otogi," Jou growled. "What the fuck do you want and how the hell did you get in here?" He shook his head. "No, forget it, I don't want to know. Now get out before I call security."

"Wait!" Otogi exclaimed. "Don't call them yet. I need to talk to you."

"You are kidding, right?" Jou asked incredulously. "What the hell makes you think that I want to talk to you after what you've done?"

"Look, I'm sorry, I really am," Otogi said fervently. "I never meant for things to end up this way. I only wanted to get one over on Kaiba, that's all. I never thought that anything like this might happen."

"More like you didn't think at all," Jou snorted. "You were so fixated on causing crap for Seto that you never thought about how I would be affected or how it would affect Honda."

"I know," Otogi looked ashamed, "and I really regret that."

"Yeah, only after Honda dumped your ass over it, I bet," Jou spat. "Come on man, you must have known that it would be fairly obvious where those images had come from and that it would get out in the end."

"I didn't think about it until after I'd sent the photos out to Channel 7, but it was far too late to stop them being shown by then."

"I hope they paid you enough to make it worth it," Jou said.

Otogi winced. "Actually, no, I sent them in anonymously, but that doesn't matter anyway." He sighed, "I just wanted to apologise before I go."

"Go?" Jou asked. "What do you mean by that?"

"I'm selling the Black Crown and leaving Domino," Otogi gave a wry smile. "Funny how you don't know what you've got 'till it's gone and I've well and truly ruined everything around here to the point where I just can't stay." He shook his head, "I'd have told Honda myself, but I know he won't even look at me, let alone let me speak to him, so I guess I'll be doing everyone a favour by just leaving." He moved back to the lift. "Sorry again, Jonouchi." He paused, "Oh, and tell Kaiba that his front desk staff are too busy gossiping to do their work properly. That's how I got in." Jou watched, totally dumbfounded as the doors slid closed. He didn't come back to himself until the office door opened and Seto stepped out, followed by Saya.

"What's up, Jou?" Seto asked, noting the shocked look on Jou's face.

"Otogi was just here," Jou explained.

Seto's expression darkened. "You are kidding!" he hurried over to Jou's side. "Did he do anything? If he did anything..." he reached over to call security, only to stop as Jou placed his hand over his own.

"Stop, Seto," Jou said gently. "He came to apologise and to tell me that he's selling the Black Crown and leaving Domino."

"Well, that's a good thing," Seto said with some satisfaction, escorting Jou back to his office and leaving Saya to deal with the memo. "He's well and truly burned his bridges around here."

"He was really upset, though."

"So he should be. He nearly cost you your life and then you were nearly deported. I'm glad he's upset."

"He hasn't told Honda though," Jou mused.

"Why should he? Honda broke it off with him didn't he?"

"Yeah, but it's still going to hurt Honda if Otogi just ups and leaves without telling him."

"I'm sorry Jonouchi," Seto shook his head. "I'm not sure what you want me to do about it."

Jou sighed. "I'm going to have to call Honda and tell him at the very least," Jou replied as he crossed to sit at his own desk and pull out his cell phone. "Honda," Jou said as the call was answered.

"Jou," Honda acknowledged. "What's up?"

"How are things going down there?"

"About as expected," Honda replied. "Kaiba's fangirls up in arms that Kaiba's taken and people are gossiping, but that's to be expected."

"Has the principal said anything?" Jou asked.

"Nope," Honda said. "but I can tell you that he's really annoyed about the press camping outside the gate."

"That doesn't surprise me," Jou said. "In fact I'm surprised that they don't hang around outside the school more often."

"Yeah, me too," Honda said. "Is that all you called for?" he asked.

"Heh, you know me too well," Jou said ruefully.

"So what's up, bud?"

"It's about Otogi," Jou said carefully.

"What about him?" Honda's voice became harsh. "Actually, I'm not sure I want to know."

"He just came to Kaiba Corporation to see me," Jou said quickly. "He came to apologise to me in person." Jou paused as Honda snorted.

"Like that's going to make up for anything," Honda said disparagingly.

"That's not all though," Jou said more gently, knowing the next would be a bombshell for his friend. "He's leaving Hon'. He's selling the Black Crown and leaving Domino."

"Wh... what?" Honda was shocked.

"He says he would have told you, but..."

"But he knew I wouldn't speak to him," Honda said weakly. "Damn it, he can't go. How is anything supposed to get fixed if he runs away?"

"I'm sorry Honda," Jou said sincerely.

"That's OK, Jou. Thanks for telling me," Honda replied sadly.

"'Sok, Hon'. What are friends for?"

"I'll have to go and see him," Honda mused, "that is, if you don't mind?"

"No, do what you need to," Jou said. "Good luck."

"Thanks," came the reply, then Honda rang off.

"I take it that he's going after Dice Boy?" Seto asked as Jou put the phone down.

"Yeah," Jou confirmed. "He was really shook up."

"Well, you might be interested to hear that I've bought the Black Crown."

"What?" Jou was shocked. "So quickly?"

A look of distaste came over Seto's features. "I wouldn't have bothered, but there were already other parties showing interest and I didn't want Otogi to make a massive mistake before Honda gets a chance to talk to him."

"Why would you do that?" Jou asked.

"Because I know how your little friendship fusion works," Seto explained with a roll of his eyes. "You might be all at sixes and sevens right now, but you'll get past that and you'll be all the stronger for it. Not that I could ever forgive him so easily," he added harshly, "but I know that your friends mean a lot to you."

"I don't know what to say," Jou said. "On one hand I want to kill you because right now I think that Otogi is an ass and deserves everything he gets, but you are right about the rest so on the other hand I want to kiss you senseless," Jou stood up and crossed to where Seto was, "and I know that Honda would be absolutely devastated if Otogi were to just up and leave, so..." he kissed Seto with feeling, "thank you," he said as he pulled away.

"I have to admit that I do have an ulterior motive," Seto admitted.

"Oh?"

"Well, if Otogi were to regret selling his business and I were to allow him to buy it back – at cost," Seto smirked, "he'd owe me one. A big one."

"I guess I should have expected that," Jou said, shaking his head with wry amusement. "There is one more thing Honda brought to my attention though,"

"Oh, what's that?"

"Apparently there are a lot of press hanging around outside the school gates, causing a disruption," Jou said.

"Hmm... I'll get my lawyers on it," Seto said. "Now come on, we have work to do."

xo xo xo xo xo xo xo

The next day, they arrived back at school, having dealt with most of the issues that their outing had caused the previous day. Seto had also had his lawyers deal with the press camping outside the school. As he explained to Jou, there was an injunction against the press interfering with his school life and just because he was now 18 and they thought there was a story to be had, didn't mean that injunction still wasn't in force, the injunction having been issued to protect the other students as much as Kaiba himself.

They had also had a meeting with the principal, which was an uncomfortable experience for all concerned. Once they were done with that they were just heading towards the locker room in order to prepare for class when out of nowhere came a scream of "Kaiba!" and an upset Honda was fighting to get at him, held back by a cringing Otogi.

"Oh, what now?" Seto said with more than a hint of exasperation as Otogi finally lost his grip on the irate Honda.

"Honda, stop!" Otogi shouted as Honda flung himself down the corridor towards at Kaiba, only to stop short as Jonouchi firmly planted himself in front of his partner.

"Get outta the way, Jou," Honda spat.

"No." Jou said simply, standing his ground as Seto looked at Honda with contempt.

"Damn it Jou, if you don't move, I'll..."

"You'll what, fin head?" Kaiba sneered. "Maybe use force on an injured person?"

Honda deflated slightly "Well, no, but..."

"But what?"

"Well... why are you hiding behind an injured man? I never pegged you as being a coward," Honda taunted.

"I'm not hiding at all," Seto said coolly, "but if you insist..." He made to step past Jou, despite his protests.

"Stop it!" Surprisingly the shout came from Otogi and everyone stopped. "Honda, I already told you. I put the Black crown on the market so Kaiba was more than entitled to buy it," he sagged, "and after everything that's happened it's only right."

"So you came here and threatened both Katsuya and myself because of something that I was perfectly entitled to do?" Kaiba sneered, crossing his arms and leaning back arrogantly.

"But you didn't have to buy it," Honda protested. "Otogi was going to take it off the market..."

"You are right, I didn't have to," Kaiba cut Honda off, "but he'd put it on the market at such an attractive price that if I hadn't snapped it up then someone else would have done and there was already a fair amount of interest being shown."

"Really?" Honda wasn't convinced.

"I already told you that," Otogi said. "It's better that Kaiba have it than some other faceless corporation."

Jou looked at Seto quizzically, wondering what he was going to do. Was he going to make Otogi squirm? Seto caught his look and smiled.

"Jou?" Honda broke him out of his thoughts.

"Eh? What?" Jou said. "Sorry, I wasn't listening." Seto facepalmed. That was just so much like Jou.

"What do you think about it?" Honda pressed.

"About what?"

"Kaiba buying the Black Crown?" Honda exclaimed.

"Oh. Well, I can tell you that Seto isn't lying," Jou informed him.

"See, I told you," Otogi said in exasperation. "I can understand that you won't take my word for it, but why would I lie about something like that?" He threw his hands up. "I give up," he said, then bowed deeply towards both Jonouchi and Kaiba. "I can only apologise for my actions," he said, then he straightened up and turned to leave.

"Hold it!" Kaiba said. "Where are you going?"

"I'm leaving," Otogi said. "It's abundantly clear that no matter what happens I've ruined everything and there is no way that anything will ever be the same. It's really for the best if I just go." He turned to leave again, ignoring Honda's protests as he walked away.

"You never struck me as a coward, Dice Boy," Seto sneered.

Otogi bristled at the familiar insult, then let it wash over him. "I'm not a coward," he insisted, "just someone who knows when to cut their losses. Surely you can appreciate that."

"So you are not interested in hearing my offer?" Seto raised an eyebrow.

"You have an offer for me?" Otogi was stunned. "Why?"

"I don't have to explain that," Seto said. "Katsuya knows my reasons and understands them." Jou nodded to show his agreement, knowing full well that it was not in Seto's nature to explain something like this.

"OK, I'm listening," Otogi said, turning to face both Kaiba and Jonouchi again.

"Are you sure that's a good idea?" Honda asked, still clearly shaken from learning that Kaiba had bought the Black Crown and unsure that Kaiba wasn't about to do something untoward in order to extract revenge. He was known to hold a grudge after all.

"Butt out Honda," Otogi said with a little annoyance at Honda's flip-flopping, something that was reflected on the faces of both Kaiba and Jonouchi. "Let me hear the man out."

"Honda, shocked at Otogi's tone of voice, quieted instantly.

"Sensible," Kaiba said, giving Honda a contemptuous look. He looked back towards Otogi. "I'm prepared to reverse the sale of the Black Crown at no cost," Kaiba said.

"What?" Otogi was completely floored. "What's the catch?"

"No catch," Kaiba said coolly.

"Come on," Otogi was clearly unconvinced. "There is no way that you'd do something like that for no reason."

"Jonouchi knows my reasons and for what it's worth, he agrees with me," Seto said. "But yes, there is something I want from you."

"Name your terms," Otogi said, gritting his teeth as he braced himself, knowing that he could sill walk away if the conditions were too bad.

"It's nothing drastic," Kaiba said. "No, all I want is a promise that you will stop trying to 'get one over' on me and a favour to be repaid at a future date."

Otogi let out a sigh of relief. It could have been a whole lot worse. Yes, the favour part had him a little worried, but before he could voice his concerns, Jou spoke up.

"Don't worry too much over the favour," Jou said. "I'll make sure he doesn't ask for anything illegal or too unreasonable."

"Oh, you're no fun," Seto almost pouted at Jou. "I wanted to make him sweat for a while." He looked back at Otogi, "So, what do you say?"

"Deal," Otogi said, holding out his hand which Kaiba shook in the age old custom of finalised deals.

"Come by my office later and we'll finalise the paperwork," Kaiba said, turning to leave. "Coming Jou?"

"Give me a moment," Jou said. "I'll catch you up." Seto nodded and walked on.

"Wow, Kaiba has really mellowed," Otogi said. "I thought he'd take pleasure in running me out of town. You really are good for him, Jonouchi."

"I'd like to think so," Jou said a little awkwardly. He wasn't that comfortable with Otogi at the moment after all. "So," Jou turned to Honda, "are you two going to be alright now?"

"Kind of," Honda said with a little discomfort. "We've got a long way to go to get the trust back, but I think he's learned his lesson." He looked at Otogi as he said this last.

"I have," the normally overly confident teen said in an uncharacteristically meek way. "I know damned well that I don't deserve a second chance and I'm going to do my best not to mess up again."

"Good," Jou said. "I'm not ready to forgive you yet and neither is Seto. Actually," he paused and thought a moment, "I don't think Seto ever will, but I can put up with you for Honda's sake as long as you leave us alone."

"Thanks, Jonouchi," Otogi said. "It's more than I deserve, really."

"Alright," Jou said. "Now I'd better go catch up with Seto." He turned to leave, only to be stopped by Honda.

"Thanks bud," Honda said, enveloping Jou in a bone crushing hug. Then he let go and went off with Otogi.

Otogi and Honda both went by Kaiba's office later. Everything was sorted out pertaining to ownership of the Black Crown and that was the end of that.

xo xo xo xo xo xo xo

It was only a couple of days later when Noa popped up on Seto's computer screen.

"What is it?" Seto asked coolly, obviously still not completely comfortable with having the virtual boy around.

"I've been running those background checks that you asked me to do on all Kaiba Corporation employees..." Noa began.

"Oh? Have you found anything out of the ordinary?" Seto asked.

"One or two things," Noa hedged, "but I came across something specifically to do with the household staff."

"So I'll sack them and have done with it," Seto said dismissively, "end of problem."

"It's not like that, Seto," Noa said. "It's Mrs. Doyle. It turns out that she has no official papers which makes her, in effect, an illegal immigrant."

"I... see," Seto said, taken aback. That Mrs. Doyle didn't have any legal documents entitling her to stay and work in Japan was something he had never considered as she had just always been... there. "Thank you for bringing it to my attention, Noa," he said. "I shall have to give this some thought."

"One more thing," Noa said. "I also noticed that her files had been accessed several times within the last few days."

"So someone else has noticed," Seto said. "I shall have to think on it quickly then."

Noa nodded, then disappeared off to continue his work.

Seto sighed and put his head into his hands, thinking about what a mess this could be. That was when Jonouchi walked into the room.

"What's up, Seto?" he asked with some concern.

"Oh, it's nothing much," Seto said offhandedly. "Just that Mrs Doyle apparently doesn't have any official papers allowing her to stay here."

"Oh," Jou was just as taken aback as Seto was. "So what are you going to do about it?" He asked.

"I'm not sure," Seto said. "Noa only brought it to my attention a couple of minutes before you came in."

"Well, at least it's not the authorities bringing it up," Jou said, ever looking for the optimistic side.

"Yes, but she was seen on the television when we gave that interview," Seto pointed out. "I can guarantee that some meddler or other will have begun looking into why I have an Irish housekeeper that obviously doesn't speak Japanese and will use it to cause trouble at some point. After all, Kaiba Corporation doesn't want to get a reputation for employing illegals."

"Can't you get her some papers?" Jonouchi asked.

"I could try, but somehow I doubt it would be that easy," Seto said with a shake of his head. "Besides, I know that no matter what she says, she is homesick. Honestly, I think the best thing for everyone would be to allow her to go home."

"You're probably right," Jou said. "But... do you think she'll go? After all, from what you told me she's insistent on not going until that debt is paid off."

"Well, it's either she gets to go home in comfort on a Kaiba Corporation jet or like a criminal on a commercial flight organised by the authorities after whatever interrogation they'd put her through," Seto said. "Noa tells me that her records have been accessed several times in the last few days and it's only logical to assume that someone is already investigating her presence."

"I get you," Jou said nodding in agreement. "In that case we should start making arrangements to send her home as soon as possible." He began to pace. "Where does she actually live? Is her home in good order? And..." he looked at Seto with big eyes, "can we come up with some way to keep in touch with her? As odd as she is, I'll miss her."

"Oh yes please, Seto," Noa said as he popped back up on the screen. "If you give her a computer and an internet connection I can visit her whenever I like."

Seto smiled at his virtual brother and his partner and shook his head with amusement. "Of course," he said. "And although I would never admit it to anyone else, I'll miss her too."

xo xo xo xo xo xo xo

So that was how Mrs. Doyle found herself travelling in comfort back to Ireland on one of Kaiba's personal jets. At the airport she was transferred to a helicopter and that was how she travelled back to Craggy Island.

It had been a tearful farewell as she was seen off by not only Jonouchi, Kaiba and Mokuba, but also Jonouchi's other friends, including Yugi and Ryou.

She had not been keen to leave, the need to stay until Father Crilly repaid his debt overriding almost anything else, but when Kaiba had explained that she should not have been here in the first place and it was fairly likely that within the next few days someone from the authorities would come around to take her away for questioning and deportation like a criminal, she reluctantly agreed that it would be for the best if she did go. Kaiba also assuaged her concerns over the debt as he pointed out that it had been more than repaid it by her time in service to the Kaiba household.

As she arrived at her front door, she regarded her home with not a small amount of dread. Not only would the place need a thorough cleaning and airing as no-one had lived there for years, but she would also have to get accustomed to being alone again. However, she was to be shocked as she unlocked the door and stepped inside. Everything was absolutely clean and pristine and there, in the corner, was a brand new table with one of those computer things on it.

She approached the table in wonder, and with a small amount of suspicion and she nearly jumped out of her skin as the monitor came to life and Noa's grinning face appeared on the screen.

"Mrs Doyle!" He exclaimed. "You made it home! Did you have a good trip?"

"I did, thank you," Mrs Doyle replied, "and I must say that it is nice to see a friendly face, even if it is a bit of a shock. To be honest, I never thought I'd ever see you again."

"Well we did say that we would stay in touch," Noa said. "Was the house cleaned to your satisfaction?" he asked.

"I haven't had chance to look all the way around yet," she replied, "but if it's anything like what I've already seen then it is excellent, but you really didn't have to go that far for me."

"Nonsense," Noa said. "Kaibas look after their own, and we do regard you as one of our own now. I'll have to let Seto know that you've arrived safely, but if you need anything, you only have to let us know."

"Thank you, Noa," Mrs Doyle said, wiping at suspiciously damp eyes. Noa waved then the screen went blank.

Mrs Doyle thought for a moment before straightening herself up. If she didn't have to spend time cleaning then it was time to head to the parochial house to see how fathers Crilly, Macguire and Hackett were getting along, if they even missed her anymore."

xo xo xo xo xo xo xo

"CRILLY!" The front door of the parochial house slammed open as the booming voice of Bishop Brennan echoed through the house. "Where are you, Crilly!" He burst into the sitting room where Father Jack Hackett was sat in his usual drunken stupor in his chair in the corner and father Dougal Macguire was sat on the sofa watching cartoons. The place was in a dirty state which only stoked his ire further.

"Oh, hello there Len," Dougal said cluelessly as the enraged bishop stormed into the room.

"Shut up you utter cretin," Bishop Brennan roared, "and tell me where that Crilly is hiding his worthless carcass!"

Father Dougal gave Bishop Brennan an odd look. "Ted's in the kitchen," he said offhandedly, turning back to watch the brightly coloured ponies cavorting on the screen.

Bishop Brennan took his cue, almost ripping the kitchen door out of it's socket in his haste to open it and there, cowering on the floor, was Father Ted Crilly.

"W... why hello there, Bishop Brennan," Ted began shakily. "Wh... what brings you all the way out here?"

Bishop Brennan grabbed Ted's ear and, ignoring the cowardly priest's whimpers of pain, dragged him forcibly to the sofa and made him sit next to Dougal. "Stay there," the man said, causing Ted to shrink back into the cushions in fear. Bishop Brennan crossed to the ancient TV and Video player, pulled a cassette out of his voluminous robes and placed it in the player.

"Hey, I was watching that!" Dougal protested, but even he quailed at the angry expression on Bishop Brennan's face and wisely shut up.

As the picture came on the screen, Bishop Brennan turned to Father Ted. "Explain," he barked.

"Er... Explain what, your grace?" Ted asked, still trying to play completely dumb even though he had to know that it was an exercise in futility.

"Stop playing dumb, Crilly!" Bishop Brennan boomed again, causing Ted to shrink further back into the cushions with a whimper. "Maybe your cretinous little friend can tell me what exactly I'm referring to."

"It's not a cartoon?" Dougal ventured, looking up at the Bishop with innocent eyes.

"Good Grief!" Bishop Brennan was beyond frustrated now. "What I am referring to is the presence of your housekeeper – the housekeeper that the Church gives you good money to employ - in this video. Which was shot in Japan less than a fortnight ago."

"I don't see her," Ted said disingenuously. "Maybe you are mistaken."

"I am not mistaken!" Bishop Brennan roared. He rewound the video and turned the sound up. "Here, watch it again."

_"I'm so sorry Master Kaiba,"_ Mrs Doyle was heard to say. _"These men insisted on seeing Mr. Jonouchi and I couldn't stop them."_

_"That's quite alright Mrs. Doyle,"_ Kaiba's accented English tones were heard. _"Could you please bring tea in for us?"_

_"OK, so."_

Bishop Brennan paused the video which clearly showed Mrs. Doyle's confused face. "Now, explain!" Father Crilly sank into the cushions and whimpered, wondering how the hell he was going to get out of this one.

"Why, hello there Bishop Brennan," Mrs Doyle said nonchalantly as she breezed into the room. "It's an unexpected honour to see you here. Would you like a nice cup of tea?"

"No thank you Mrs Doyle, I just..." He stopped as he registered her presence in the room. "Wait... What are you doing here?" Confusion was evident on his face.

"I do work here, don't I?" she replied.

"But... but..." the bishop was lost for words.

"Oh! You've seen where I went on holiday," she said brightly as she took note of her picture showing on the television.

"You... you call_ that_ a holiday?" he asked incredulously, "Keeping house for people like... like _them?_"

"Oh yes. It was quite the experience," she said matter of factly, "but it is good to be home." She looked at Bishop Brennan expectantly.

The bishop threw his hands up in the air. "You people are all INSANE!" he yelled, before storming out of the house, swearing that it really would be a cold day in hell before he ever stepped foot there again.

Mrs Doyle watched with satisfied amusement as the bishop left the house as quickly as he'd obviously arrived. She glanced around, seeing that she had a lot of work to do to get the house back into some kind of reasonable order, but first things first. "Now, who's for a nice cup of tea?" she said brightly, smiling as both Father Crilly and Father Macguire gave enthusiastic responses. Jack just continued to slumber in the corner, oblivious to everything.

Living with the Kaibas for so long had been interesting in its own way and had taught her some valuable lessons, but it really was good to be home.

xo xo xo xo xo xo xo

**A/N - **Just in case you missed it at the top - I'm revising this to read as complete - for now. The 'epilogue' I mentioned is just NOT up to snuff and will need a lot more work and expansion before I consider it to be. It doesn't help that my inspiration and motivation for this story has gone out of the window and besides, I think this is a fairly good place to end it as it is. Sometimes trying to force more out of a story does not work and that is where I find myself right now.

Also, why in hell do I have an Azureshipping plotbunny hanging around in my head? That's not really a pairing I'm into. Oh well, a change is as good as a rest, as they say. I shall write it for NaNoWriMo to get it out of my system, but I don't know if I'll ever post it anywhere. :/

All that said, thank you for reading.


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